Frankfurt/Brussels, 22 May 2026 – On the trade agreement to be signed by the EU and Mexico during their summit meeting, VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann says:

• “With this agreement, the EU is sending another positive signal in favor of free trade and paving the way for stronger trade relations. Mexico is the largest export market for our industry in Latin America. As part of the North American single market with the United States and Canada, the country is becoming increasingly important for European machinery and equipment manufacturing.”

• “The agreement gives our companies more opportunities in public procurement in Mexico. For the machinery industry, it also improves the rules of origin: while machinery could already be exported duty-free, this was previously allowed only with a limited share of inputs from non-EU countries, usually 30 percent. In future, up to 50 percent will be permitted.”

• “The European Parliament should now give its approval as quickly as possible so that the EU trade agreement with Mexico can enter into force.”

VDMA represents 3500 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and SMEs. The companies employ around 3 million people in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. In the European Union, it represents a turnover volume of an estimated 900 billion euros.
Around 80 percent of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing plant in the domestic market.