Mexico`s free trade agreement with Central America began with an alliance along the Northern Triangle, with relations between the nations of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. In 2011, Mexico, the Central American countries of origin and the additional nations of Costa Rica and Nicaragua signed an agreement that was officially ratified in 2013. The agreement maintained provisions similar to nafta, which contained little or no tariffs on goods and services, and generated about $5 billion in Mexican exports in 2015. Whatever the outcome, the president`s approach of breaking clearly with seven decades of American policy that had favored increasingly free world trade. Instead of trying to reduce trade barriers and put in place rules that should benefit all countries, the government has openly adopted an «America First» program. Armed with tariffs, threats and combative rhetoric, it has attempted to impose concessions from China, Mexico and Canada. Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico account for about 70% of the great region. The three countries concluded a free trade agreement in 1994 that protects intellectual property rights and public sector investment. Trade restrictions are expected to be reduced by 10% per year over a 10-year period.

Venezuela finally left the agreement in 2006. In 2009, following the fear of a global swine flu pandemic that probably began in Mexico, relations between the two countries cooled considerably as part of China`s decision to quarantine about seventy Mexican citizens, although none of them showed symptoms of the virus. The Mexican government reacted with indignation and imposed the same measures on four U.S. nationals and more than 20 Canadians; discriminatory act. Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa called the terms «unacceptable» and «baseless» and advised her countrymen not to travel to China. As part of the so-called Phase 1 agreement, Trump rejected his plan to impose $160 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports and halved import taxes to an additional $110 billion. (The government still maintains tariffs on $360 billion worth of Chinese goods and Beijing has imposed retaliatory duties on U.S. exports.) In return, China expressed its readiness to do more to protect intellectual property and limit its practice of forcing foreign companies to obtain trade secrets as an admission price to the Chinese market.

The free trade agreement between Japan and Mexico was Japan`s first comprehensive agreement with a single country.