OTTAWA—The Mexican ambassador to Canada says his country is “really mad” at the Harper government for the continued imposition of a visa on its travellers here.

Ambassador Francisco Suarez told The Canadian Press in an exclusive interview that Mexico is so upset that if the issue isn’t resolved by next year, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto might have to postpone a planned visit to Canada.

That would cast a shadow over the festivities that Mexico and Canada are planning for 2014 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the 70th anniversary of bilateral relations.

“We’re now saying it’s a major irritant,” said Suarez, who assumed his new post in Ottawa three months ago.

“We’re now really mad. . . . Canada has the most stringent visa system for Mexicans of any country in the world.”

While Mexico’s relations with Canada are generally very good, the visa issue could become an obstacle to deepening economic co-operation in areas such as energy and natural resources, the envoy said.

Canada imposed a visa on Mexican travellers in 2009 to curb abuses by a growing number of bogus refugee claimants. Prime Minister Stephen Harper himself has said he would like to see it lifted but says Canada has to reform its own backlogged refugee system first.

The visiting Mexican foreign minister, Jose Antonio Meade Kuribrena, said little in Ottawa this summer standing next to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird when Baird was unable to give a timeline for lifting the visa.

Suarez said the time has come to carve out a “roadmap” that will keep the issue from dragging on for months and years.

If that’s not in place by the time Harper is expected to travel to Mexico in the late months of this year or in January, the visit will not be productive, the envoy said.

“If Harper goes to Mexico, and there’s no solution, either a clear solution or a clear path, a roadmap, with a solution that does not take two years — that’s the point — he’s going to get a very bad atmosphere.”

Pena Nieto’s planned trip to Ottawa in the second quarter of 2014 won’t go ahead either if the issue isn’t close to being resolved, said Suarez.

“President Pena Nieto cannot come here if the topic is not solved,” he said. “It will have to be delayed.”

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