Until now, the government in Mexico City has focused most of its attention on the USA, particularly in economic matters. Now a rethink is beginning, which is being greatly pushed by the Trump administration’s erratic tariff policy. As a consequence, Mexico is accelerating its search for new markets and allies, benefitting the state of Veracruz, among others.
This fundamental change in strategy was confirmed by Ernesto Pérez Astorga, Minister of Economic Development and Ports, Gobierno del Estado de Veracruz, who spoke of a shocking ‘wakeup-call’ trumpeted by Trump. “We will develop a new view by shifting our focus from north to south and east across the Atlantic to the EU,” stated the politician during a presentation of Veracruz State at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce last week. “Our infrastructure is first class; new rail lines connect the port of Veracruz at the Gulf of Mexico with Salina Cruz at the Pacific Ocean,” he stressed, capturing some of the tonnage passing through the Panama Canal today with an annual toll generating USD 2 billion in revenue. His government expects that, by 2028, 300,000 containers will be transported on this new Mexican Interoceanic Railway Line stretching 227 km coast to coast. This equals the transport capacity of 12 mega container ships of the MSC Michel Cappellini class (24,346 TEU). In 2024, the Panama Canal recorded a total of 11,240 transits by ocean-going and small merchant vessels transporting 210 million tons of cargo. These figures illustrate the central role of the Canal in global trade and that freight trains such as those between Veracruz and Salina Cruz can only complement it slightly.
On its way to becoming a logistical hotspot
The politician emphasized that 14% of all exports from the EU to Mexico are handled at the Caribbean port of Veracruz. They are addressed to Volkswagen, Audi, Stellantis or BMW, that operate plants in Mexico, as do GM, Tesla and Ford. Other buyers of European goods are the pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries as well as mechanical engineering companies and manufacturers of semiconductors, a fast-growing sector in Mexico. Exports are dominated by agricultural items such as avocados, oranges, lemons, pineapples and the meat industry (beef, chicken, pork).
“With our product variety, our strong domestic market and thanks to the developed infrastructure, we could replace Florida as the most important transshipment point for fresh produce from Central and South America to Europe in the future,” says Ernesto Pérez Astorga. An exciting vision and a realistic one, he stresses: “We are attempting to turn the state of Veracruz into a worldclass logistics hub.”
Lacking airport capacity
The implementation of this objective will be accelerated by the turmoil caused bythe Trump tariffs, which has greatly shaken the international markets and shocked Mexico, Canada and most countries south of the Rio Grande, increasingly spurring the trend towards deglobalization, the official said. Yet to seriously compete with Miami as the most important hub for Latin American products traveling northbound or to Europe, Veracruz lacks an efficient international airport. VER only has a runway measuring 2400 m × 45 mb – a dwarf compared to Miami International and its four runways. However, thanks to Veracruz’s deep-water port, it could at least work out in terms of maritime transport supported by convenient hinterland connections.
cargo-partner ups air freight services in Mexico
At the same time as the Veracruz delegation’s stay in Hamburg, the Austrian logistics company, cargo-partner (belonging to the Japanese Nippon Express Group), announced the expansion of its air freight activities to and from Mexico.
The cargo flights started last year, when cargo-partner launched a consolidation service from Frankfurt to Mexico City. The service has since been strengthened with regular air consolidations services from Hungary and Austria to the Central American state. It has now added regular air services between Mexico and Asia, including China and Hong Kong, which help support the growing needs of international trade by providing end-to-end air freight solutions abroad.
Three product offers
In a release, cargo-partner emphasizes that customers can choose between three different service levels and price categories when booking air freight transportation: economy, priority and emergency. Luis Gomez, Managing Director of cargo-partner Mexico, explained: “We’ve launched new air cargo connections to give our customers more flexibility and reliable freight capacities at competitive rates. Our expanded air freight services are designed to help businesses trading in Mexico streamline their supply chains and meet critical delivery deadlines.”
Trade prevents conflicts
In an analysis of Trump’s tariff policy, Courtney Miller, of Aviation Week, draws a negative conclusion. “Today, the costs are the focus of the U.S. administration. It will take 15-20 years for any benefits of deglobalization to be materially felt by way of a sufficient manufacturing base being constructed in the U.S., while the loss of benefits and economic slowdown are already being felt and will continue to be for the next 15 years. Given relatively rapid administration changes in the United States, it is increasingly unlikely that the public opinion will hold out long enough for the benefits to (potentially) materialize.” Miller went on to say that tariffs hardly cause conflict, instead, “history has shown that trade is one of the key factors in preventing conflict.”
Even if the die has not yet been cast regarding the tariffs that Washington will ultimately impose on Mexico for imported goods, for Ernesto Pérez Astorga one issue is beyond doubt: “We must gradually decouple ourselves from our northern neighbor and create new alliances in Central America and strengthen our ties with the EU.”
“With our product variety, our strong domestic market and thanks to the developed infrastructure, we could replace Florida as the most important transshipment point for fresh produce from Central and South America to Europe in the future,” says Ernesto Pérez Astorga. An exciting vision and a realistic one, confirmed Rocio Nahle García, Governor of Veracruz. “He is very enthusiastic concerning the future role of Veracruz as a center for multi-modal transports.”
