Tourism Minister Enrique de la Madrid Discounts Trump Trash Talk Monika Gonzalez Mesa - Daily Business Review
go to original August 26, 2016

Enrique de la Madrid (J. Albert Diaz)

The Mexican government has decided it needs to invest more time and money on its image in the U.S. as officials visit U.S. cities to counteract what it calls untrue comments by U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Mexican tourism minister Enrique de la Madrid met with politicians and reporters Friday in Miami as part of the ongoing effort to make Mexico's relevance to the U.S. better understood by Americans. He said campaign bombast has made Mexico realize it needs to do more to make the U.S. public aware of the value that the relationship brings to the U.S.

He said Mexico has underinvested in traveling to promote its U.S. image and will be doing more to strengthen relationships. He said Americans have the misperception that Mexico is poor when it has wealth and investment as well.

"We're here to talk about the relevance of this relationship for the U.S.," he said. "We are here to explain that we are not the problem but could be part of the solution. Certain sectors in the U.S. are being left behind, but the solution is not to separate our economies or separate our countries. That's not the way to solve this."

De la Madrid came armed with statistics: A market with a population that has grown to 120 million, Mexico is now the world's 11th largest economy. Mexican companies own some American brands. Mexico is the world's ninth most visited country. He said American Airlines' largest destination country outside the U.S. is Mexico. A fifth of all U.S. international travelers head to Mexico. About 18 million Mexicans travel for business or pleasure to the U.S. Six million U.S. jobs are directly related to Mexico.

"There have been some comments in the U.S. campaigns which are not only unfair, but are not true about the relationship between Mexico and the U.S.," said de la Madrid, who spoke in a notably gentle, neighborly tone. "If some of the policies that have been stated or commented in this campaign were to take place, they would not only harm Mexico, they would harm the American people. We are not against anyone, we are just against bad ideas."

Read the rest at Daily Business Review

Related: Mexico Brings Campaign Against Trump’s ‘Bad Ideas’ to Miami (Miami Herald)

Related: Foreign Minister: Challenges of Mexico and US Can be Solved Only Together (The Yucatan Times)

Related: Antonio Garza: Let's Remember We're All Americans (The Dallas Morning News)

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