OTHER NEWS - Dec. 6, 1993

Mexico Reaches New Trade Pact: Mexico, fresh from agreeing to a free trade pact with the United States and Canada, has now done the same with Venezuela and Colombia, the Mexican trade ministry announced. Trade Minister Jaime Serra Puche agreed in a telephone conversation with his Venezuelan and Colombian counterparts late Saturday that free trade talks which began in July, 1991, between the three countries were now complete, the ministry said in a statement. “Between Jan. 10 and Jan. 15 next year the Free Trade Agreement of the Group of Three will be initialed by the trade ministers of the three nations and will be signed by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and his Colombian and Venezuelan counterparts in the same month of January.”