Above: Haiti President Michel Martelly and Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto (Photo: OP Haiti)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Bilateral trade between Mexico and Haiti stood at $61.7 million last year, a number Haiti President Michel Martelly and Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto say is well below its potential.

Martelly and Nieto held a working meeting last week within the context of the Fifth ACS Heads of Government summit in Port-au-Prince, pledging to increase both trade and general cooperation between the two countries.

In March, Haiti’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Mexican Entrepreneurial Council for Foreign Trade, Investment and Technology signed an inter-institutional cooperation agreement, something Martelly and Nieto said they welcomed.

Beyond trade, the two heads of state said they wanted to continue cooperation areas like education, an area that has seen Mexico help construct three new schools in Haiti. Mexico is also offering 300 scholarships for Haitian students.

The two sides said the meeting occurred in “a climate of friendship, courtesy and cooperation characteristic of the good relations between the two countries.”

Nieto invited Martelly to make a formal visit to Mexico later this year.

Haiti and Mexico will meet in Port-au-Prince later this year for their second Joint Intergovernmental Commission in Port-au-Prince, the countries said.