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Prague - The Mexican economy, hit by a decline in tourism during the swine flu outbreak, is fundamentally healthy and can quickly recover, the country's foreign secretary said on Thursday.
Though fears of swine flu led to dwindling numbers of visitors to Mexico, Patricia Espinoza assured that the worst of the outbreak was over and that "Mexico is a safe country" for tourists.
"It's has been a very unpleasant event, but the country's still there. We've got our hotels, we've got our infrastructure, we're ready and waiting to receive tourists and to receive investors and investments," she said.
More than 30 countries have reported swine flu cases since the virus first appeared in Mexico. Of the 63 patients who died worldwide, 58 were in Mexico.
Flights to Mexico have been virtually empty of tourists - hurting an industry that the country's third-largest source of legal foreign income. Some countries also banned imports of Mexican pork, despite assurances from health experts that people cannot catch swine flu from meat.
Trading partner
But the Latin American country's infrastructure and manufacturing were not affected during the outbreak, Espinoza said.
"We hope that we will able to recover very quickly," Espinoza said during a visit to Prague, where she and other officials from Latin American nations met on Wednesday with EU officials.
She also praised Peru's decision to lift a ban of flights to Mexico. But three other Latin American nations - Cuba, Ecuador and Argentina - still have such measures in place. Others, such as Switzerland, have withdrawn advisory against travel to Mexico.
The EU has been working to upgrade its ties with Mexico by making the Latin American country its "strategic partner" - a status Brussels reserves for its most important global partners including Russia, China and the US.
The EU is Mexico's number two trading partner, after the US
Last year, trade between the EU and Mexico was worth $59.6bn last year - a 222% rise since the two sides signed a trade agreement in 2000.
"We're very pleased to see that this association agreement has had such a positive impact on economic and trade flows, and we feel there's huge potential to strengthen our relations," said in Prague Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU's external relations commissioner.