MEXICO CITY, Sept. 12 - President Hu Jintao of China wooed Mexican leaders on Monday during a state visit, trying to smooth out the often prickly relationship between the two countries as part of a larger campaign to expand China's influence in Latin America.
In the afternoon, Mr. Hu and President Vicente Fox signed several minor agreements with great fanfare, among them one providing mutual tax limits on companies doing business in both countries and another that will allow Mexico to export grapes to China in return for importing Chinese pears.
The countries also agreed on a framework for negotiating future accords that eventually may allow Chinese companies to mine iron and other minerals in Mexico. In recent years, China has been scouring Latin America for iron and oil to feed its roaring economy.
But underneath these shows of cooperation lies an ugly economic street fight over the United States market, analysts say. Chinese companies have battered Mexico's manufacturers and farmers in recent years, and many here see China threatening to replace Mexico as the main supplier of light manufactured goods. Last year, China knocked Mexico out of the No. 2 spot on the list of importers to the United States.
And Mexico itself is flooded with Chinese products, both legal and contraband, from chili peppers to blue jeans to electronics. Last year, Mexico imported $31 in goods from China for every dollar's worth it sent there, according to trade experts here, and that does not include the thriving market in smuggled Chinese goods.
"The real relationship between the People's Republic of China and Mexico is very tense," said Enrique Dussel Peters, an expert on Mexican-Chinese trade at the Autonomous University of Mexico. "This ratio of 31 to 1, which is only going to grow in the short run, is not only a social problem but could become a political problem."
In a speech after a signing ceremony, Mr. Fox made it clear he had spoken with Mr. Hu about both the yawning trade deficit and the dumping of contraband Chinese goods.
"Today we heard from President Hu his enthusiasm, his help, his support in closing the commercial gap," Mr. Fox said, looking over at Mr. Hu. "We touched on the subject of contraband and President Hu offered to help with this area."
For his part, Mr. Hu kept his remarks short and diplomatic, saying only that he looked forward to seeing more Mexican products in the Chinese market. Later in the day, he visited the Mexican Supreme Court and then the Senate, where he got stuck in a broken elevator for 15 minutes.
Mr. Hu's visit seems part of a broader effort to secure future sources of oil, iron ore, aluminum, timber and other commodities throughout Latin America and Canada, despite the United States' longtime hegemony in the region. Under his watch, China has sewn up deals for Chinese companies to develop oil fields and mines and to purchase commodities in Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Cuba, Bolivia and Argentina.
Mexico is different. The Constitution bans foreign investment in Petróleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil monopoly, and the country lacks large reserves of iron and bauxite, analysts say.
Julian Ventura, the Mexican director general for Asian affairs, said oil exploration did not even come up Monday. And the mining agreement is only a framework for future deals, not a binding contract, he said.
Still, Mr. Ventura said the agreements signed Monday were intended to begin diminishing the trade gap. One of the most important agreements, Mr. Ventura said, will establish direct flights and allow large group tours to begin coming to Mexico from China, a potentially rich source of foreign exchange. "China is a country that has firmly arrived here in the international economy with an unprecedented impact and volume," Mr. Ventura said. "And what we are looking to do is to see this reality from the perspective of opportunities and not from the perspective of a threat."
