The government of Mexico is taking steps to accelerate the progress of free trade negotiations it is holding with Turkey and New Zealand.

Mexican and Turkish authorities have agreed to step up the negotiations regarding a potential bilateral free trade agreement between the two countries, following the recent confirmation that it will be doing the same with the European Union.

Luis Videgaray, Mexico's secretary of foreign affairs, said: "We've already had seven rounds of negotiations, and another round will be held in the coming weeks. We have agreed to speed up the process of searching for specifics of this agreement."

The government is also reaching out to its counterparts in New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam to sound them out about the prospects of additional bilateral deals.

All of these nations are members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, a multilateral deal that is in danger of collapsing due to the decision of the US to withdraw.

New US president Donald Trump is taking a combative, protectionist stance to free trade, particularly in the case of Mexico, which is why the latter is looking to shore up its alliances elsewhere.