Next Thursday June 18, Mexico and South Korea will play a crucial match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Guadalajara City. Previously both have won their respective matches and intend to classify for the next round. But taking football out of the equation, Mexico and South Korea are allies, partners and Seoul has insisted throughout this century on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that has experienced several difficulties, specially on the Mexican side.
Since 2004, South Korea has officially wanted to negotiate a bilateral FTA with Mexico, when both nations first agreed to conduct preliminary joint studies. This procedure was also followed for the negotiation of the Mexico-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) that came into fortce in 2005.
In the case of Mexico and South Korea between 2004 and 2005, as suggested, the two countries conducted joint feasibility studies, officially launching consultations to draft a Strategic Economic Complementation Agreement. Although negotiations began in 2006, Mexico’s domestic industries—particularly steel and auto parts— opposed since they feared the impact of South Korean imports. Then a year after, negotiations were revived and attempted again but were ultimately suspended indefinitely in 2008 as the global financial crisis hit.
It was not until the COVID-19 pandemic declined that in 2022, following a 14-year hiatus, that high-level officials from Mexico and South Korea agreed to officially restart negotiations, seeking to secure supply chains and boost trade. There was a lot of talk about semi-conductors manufacturing in Mexico. Since then, negotiations have been interrupted and again reconsidered several times, but the international context does not seem to help this FTA to come to life.
Mexico is an open economy with 13 FTAs that include 50 countries. These treaties provide Mexican-based businesses and manufacturers with preferential access to more than 60% of the global GDP. Amongst Mexico’s trade partners covered by FTAs there are important partners such as the Unites States, the European Union and, as mentioned, Japan. Mexico also negotiated an FTA with Israel and several Latin American countries are also included in the list.
In the case of South Korea, the country’s aggressive pursuit of economic diplomacy has led to the conclusion of 23 FTAs that cover 59 countries. Seoul’s FTAs include key partners such as the United States, the People’s Republic of China, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Turkey, Israel, India, Peru, Chile, all of Central American nations, Ecuador and Colombia. It also includes regional agreements with the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Speaking about Latin America, although South Korea covers a wide range of countries, no MERCOSUR partners neither Mexico have concluded FTAs with the Asian country. This can be explained, in the case of the most important MERCOSUR partner, Brazil, due to competing protectionist interests in agriculture and manufacturing. In Seoul, the agricultural sector has strongly resisted the FTA due to fears of cheap South American agricultural products (like beef, poultry, and corn) flooding the Korean market. Conversely, MERCOSUR’s manufacturing sector (including Brazil's) has fiercely opposed opening their markets, fearing they will be undercut by highly competitive South Korean electronics, machinery, and automotive exports. Yet, las February, during the visit of Brazil’s Lula Da Silva to South Korea, both countries agreed to revive MERCOSUR trade talks. The engine for this announcement is, of course, the protectionism and trade tariffs endorsed by Donald Trump against almost everyone in the world.
With Mexico, the situation is also complex. Since the United States is Mexico major trade partner, it is natural that Mexicans focus mostly on trade and investment negotiations with its northern neighbor at the expense of the linkages with the rest of the world. Despite the very conflicting views by Trump on Mexico, the later has opted for not diversifying its trade dependence with the USA, not to anger the controversial Republican.
The trade balance between Mexico and South Korea is heavily skewed in South Korea's favor, resulting in a persistent and massive trade deficit for Mexico. Mexico typically exports around $6 billion to $8 billion in goods to South Korea annually, while imports between $20 billion and $23 billion, leading to a negative trade gap exceeding $14 billion. This is because Mexico exports minerals and precious metal concentrates (e.g., zinc ore, lead ore), on auto parts and piston engines, agricultural products, notably pork and avocados and imports more added value products such as electronic integrated circuits and microchips, automotive parts and finished vehicles, machinery, computers, and flat-panel displays.
Over 1 900 South Korean companies operate in Mexico, with massive investments in consumer electronics, automotive manufacturing, and supply chains. Key players include tech giants like Samsung and LG, and automakers like Hyundai and Kia. On the Mexican side, companies like Grupo Bimbo, Kidzania and Vitro have operations in South Korea.
South Korea’s soft power in Mexico is anchored by the explosive popularity of the Hallyu wave (K-pop, K-dramas, movies, and K-beauty) and deep-rooted cultural and educational exchanges. Korean food is highly popular in Mexico. This phenomenon has driven unprecedented interest in learning the Korean language, boosted consumer demand for South Korean products, and solidified South Korea as a premier, innovative country brand.
It is well known the massive Mexican fanbase for idols like BTS. In fact, BTS recently visited the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum at the National Palace, causing turmoil at the City Center. According to BigHit Music, Mexico is the fifth largest market for K-pop music, with BTS being the most famous K-pop group there. The visit was previously to a high political profile team of negotiators who intended to work with Mexico on a possible FTA framework -it did not succeed though, since the Mexican minister for economics said the priority for the country right now is the Mexico, Canada US Free Trade Agreement (USMCA) currently under review.
There is not point of comparison with the Mexican culture presence in South Korea although it is slowly increasing. It is interesting to note that according to anthropologists and sociologists both Mexican and Korean cultures are highly group-oriented, place a strong emphasis on family ties, share an intense love for food as a social language -in fact spicy food is common to the two countries-, and hold high levels of mutual respect for each other's global cultural exports.
But not everything is joy between Mexico and South Korea. Effective January 1, 2026, Mexico implemented structural tariff increases of up to 50% on 1 463 industrial products from countries without active free trade agreements, which includes South Korea, Vietnam, India and the People’s Republic pf China. These measures target sectors like steel, electronics, and automotive components to manage trade imbalances and align with North American supply chain policies. These tariffs are also endorsed by Mexico due to pressures coming from the USA. For instance, many South Korean companies -e. g. like Kia, Samsung, and LG- manufacture in Mexico for export to the American market and utilize the IMMEX program. This allows them to import parts duty-free if the finished goods are ultimately exported out of the country. The tariff application is being mitigated for intermediate manufacturing through sector-specific duty-reduction programs like PROSEC, which heavily lowers the cost impact for Korean supply chains operating inside Mexico. Yet following the friction caused by these hikes, Mexico and South Korea discarded Free Trade Agreement (FTA) talks in May 2026 and instead signed a new Trade and Investment Framework.
Politically speaking, Mexico and South Korea participate at a concertation mechanism called MIKTA that involves the two plus Turkey, Indonesia and Australia. MIKTA was officially born on September 25, 2013. The partnership was launched during an inaugural meeting of Foreign Ministers held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York City that year. These informal middle powers partnership aims to support effective global governance. Although its profile is rather discrete the foreign ministries of the member countries gather frequently to discuss world’s challenges and approaches to conflict resolution and global cooperation.
Besides that, South Korea also has a special interest in Mexico that has to do with North Korea, since both countries have diplomatic relations since 1980. For Mexico, relations with Pyongyang are important since during the Cold War Mexican guerrillas trained and learned the use of weapons in North Korea, and the issue became a national security priority for Mexican authorities. Although Mexico has endorsed the United Nations Security Council resolutions on North Korea pertaining its nuclear weapons program -and even expelled the North Korean Ambassador on September 7, 2017 after a nuclear test-, relations have normalized under the López Obrador administration when he accepted the credentials of the new resident North Korean Ambassador, Sun-Ryong Song, to Mexico in September 2020.
For all these reasons, when the two national football teams play on June 18, one may wonder whether this popular sport could contribute to a better understanding between Mexico and South Korea, and, who knows, may favor trade negotiations sometime in the near future.
Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by María Cristina Rosas, a professor and researcher in the faculty of political and social sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. The column appears in The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with the permission of the author. Rosas can be reached via email at: mcrosas@prodigy.net.mx
