The United Kingdom may be going through turbulent political times, but its relationship with Mexico is “getting better all the time,” Duncan Taylor, the U.K. ambassador in Mexico, has confirmed.
In a regular column he pens for the capital’s Excelsior newspaper, Taylor borrowed a phrase from the Beatles album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (celebrating its 50th anniversary this year), to sum up the current state of bilateral relations.
With Brexit negotiations with the European Union now underway, ambassadors at British embassies around the world have been instructed by Prime Minister Theresa May to promote “Global Britain,” an initiative that, according to the Financial Times, is “designed to reprise the United Kingdom’s historical place as an international trading hub thanks to a web of new trade agreements that her government plans to negotiate in the coming years.”
The U.K.’s keenness to cozy up to Mexico has never been more apparent. In his remarks, Taylor noted that trade between Mexico and the United Kingdom has increased by 20 percent so far this year. And a visit scheduled next week by Liam Fox, the Secretary of State for International Trade, will be the fourth made by a senior U.K. trade official in the past 12 months, he said.
Taylor also highlighted the success over the past six years of the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Prosperity Fund, which promotes the creation of conditions for global growth by supporting Mexico’s transition to a sustainable, rules-based developed economy.
While it is Taylor’s duty to emphasize the potential positives of the U.K.’s post-Brexit role in the world, many commentators have disparaged May’s Global Britain initiative.
The New York Times called the notion, “A specious branding effort designed to mask an expensive mistake, opposed by 48 percent of voters.” While the New Statesman commented that, “Britain has, in truth, always been global, and the globe has not always been grateful for it; but now the government preaches internationalism while erecting trade barriers and curbing migration. After empire, Britain found a new role in Europe, but with that now gone, Global Britain risks producing global isolation.”