By Alistair Bell and Daniel Trotta
SHANGHAI/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - China prepared on Tuesday to repatriate Mexicans who were under forced quarantine over fears of a new flu strain, and Mexico announced plans to revive its economy hit by the deadly epidemic, which showed signs of easing.
An Aeromexico plane arrived in Shanghai to repatriate dozens of Mexicans held under forced flu quarantine, as a Chinese aircraft left for Mexico to pick up its own stranded nationals.
The 43 Mexicans, none showing symptoms of the H1N1 flu, have become pawns in a drama about how far governments should go to stifle fears the virus could creep through their borders.
The row has strained what had been a warming relationship but, with Beijing courting Latin America as a trade and diplomatic partner, the damage appears unlikely to last.
Mexico is considered the epicentre of the flu outbreak that has infected more than 1,200 people in 21 countries over the past week, sparking fears of a global pandemic.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced a stimulus package, including a temporary tax cut for cruise lines visiting Mexico, in a bid to lure back shiploads of foreign visitors.
The new H1N1 flu strain has walloped the tourism sector, accounting for 8 percent of Mexico's economy, prompting major operators like Carnival Cruise Lines to cancel visits.
Calderon said details of the stimulus plan would be given in coming days, telling the nation in a televised broadcast: "We're going to come out of this experience successfully and soon."
He repeated government assurances that Mexico was over the worst of its own epidemic.
CHINA VULNERABLE
To date, 27 deaths have been officially confirmed -- 26 in Mexico and one in the United States -- though more than 100 are suspected to have died from the flu. Its global spread has kept alive fears of a possible pandemic, although scientists say this strain does not appear more deadly than seasonal flu.
Calderon condemned the quarantine measures against Mexican citizens overseas as "discriminatory."
China has denied that, saying isolation was the correct procedure. China's vast population and patchy medical infrastructure make it vulnerable should the virus take hold.
Police closed roads to the airport as ambulances drove away from the Shanghai hotel where the Mexicans, including a honeymooning couple, had been quarantined.
None of those quarantined had shown any signs of being infected, the Chinese Health Ministry said, and the state-run Xinhua news agency said six Mexican students studying in China had "volunteered to stay." It did not elaborate.
In Hong Kong, some 300 guests and staff remained quarantined in a hotel where China's single confirmed H1N1 case, a 25-year-old Mexican man, had stayed.
The one Mexican in China found with the H1N1 virus arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday after passing through Shanghai. Many of the confined Mexicans in Hong Kong were on his flight to Shanghai.
While the new H1N1 virus is not foodborne, fears of cross-border contagion stirred up international trade tensions after about 20 nations banned imports of pigs, pork and other meat from the United States, Canada and Mexico, the three most flu-affected countries.
Canada threatened to take China to the World Trade Organisation unless Beijing backs down from its ban on imports of pigs and pork from the province of Alberta, where a herd of pigs was found to have the H1N1 strain.
China's Commerce Ministry had no immediate response.
Health experts, citing precedents such as the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic that killed millions of people, warn the latest epidemic could attack more violently a few months from now.
In Mexico, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the government would lift the precautionary five-day shutdown it had imposed on public and business activities on May 1.
WAVERING OVER PANDEMIC ALERT
An International Labour Organisation official, Jean Maninat, said the flu epidemic would hurt employment in Latin America, hitting tourism and airline sectors the hardest.
European finance ministers said they saw no evidence the H1N1 flu was hurting Europe's economy.
While U.S. hog futures fell on Monday over the flu alert, Mexico's peso made its biggest gains in more than six months and stocks jumped as health fears eased.
With infections of the new flu strain cropping up across the globe, the World Health Organisation wavered over whether it might declare a full pandemic alert.
WHO chief Margaret Chan said the apparent good news from Mexico over the epidemic had to be treated with caution.
Before issuing a level 6 pandemic alert, WHO would need to see the virus spreading within communities in Europe or Asia.
"No one can say right now how the pandemic will evolve or indeed whether we are going into a pandemic," Chan told a U.N. General Assembly session.
(Additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher, Robert Campbell, Daniel Trotta, Louise Egan and Michael O'Boyle in Mexico City; Laura MacInnis in Geneva, Patrick Worsnip in New York, Maggie Fox and Andrew Quinn in Washington, Jerry Bieszk and Michael Hirtzer in Chicago; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
