Casa Rosada seeks the support of the governors to advance the Mercosur-EU agreement

The government will open Thursday a new negotiating chapter after the signing of the Free Trade Agreement between Mercosur and the European Union. After initiating sectoral dialogue tables with businessmen, Casa Rosada will bring together governors' envoys to explain the scope of the treaty. This type of management will be essential because the executive will need the Congress approval ratify the pact.

The Minister of Production and Labor, Dante Sica, and Chancellor Jorge Faurie will meet with their counterparts from the provincial economy at the Treasury Palace. The officials will explain to them what the reach and impact who would have the agreement in the regional markets, one of the main concerns of the governors.

The reaction of the provincial leaders to the news of the free trade agreement signed with the European authorities it was disparate. On the one hand, the governors of the main-activity provinces (agriculture and hydrocarbons) expressed their satisfaction, while others, opponents or having neighborhoods with industrial components, were more reluctant.

For example, rionegrino Alberto Weretilneck said that his province "can play a very important role at this stage, generator of primary products and the technology that will find on the European market a niche of incalculable importance ".

On the contrary, from another province of Patagonia, the answer was contrary. Elected Governor of Tierra del Fuego, Gustavo Melella, said: "It disturbs the competition that similar products produced in the European Union and in our region can generate." "For the future of the Tierra del Fuego and its workers industry it would be very dangerous"How did he.

The national government has presented the free trade agreement with the EU as a possibility for the provinces. "We will work with them because we want all regional economies benefit of the agreement, "said Foreign Trade Secretary Marisa Bircher on Thursday.

Another issue on which the provinces should rely on a definition relates to one of the aspects included in the agreement: the public purchases. The initialed treaty explicitly provides that Argentine companies could be suppliers to European authorities, while companies in the Old Continent could also participate in this type of tendering process.

"Each year, 250 000 European authorities make public purchases of services and goods representing the equivalent of 16% of European GDP (around 2.7 billion euros). The agreement allows our companies to participate in this market, while preserving our own system of public procurement for Argentine SMEs, "said the government in a document released a few days after the signing of the agreement. ;agreement.

But sub-national – provincial and municipal – purchases, they are not included in this clause. As a result, governorates will have the option of voluntarily joining the scheme and opening up their public procurement system to European companies.

Thursday's meeting will be held at the Mercosur Heads of State Summit, to be held at the Estación Belgrano Santa Fe Convention Center, from July 15 to 17.

The agreement would come into force in 2021

Sica and Faurie badured that the main economic and commercial points of the agreement, including the reduction of tariffs, could enter into force in 2021 on a provisional basis.

Officials indicated that, unlike the environmental, political or institutional issues that required the approval of the European Union Parliament, then the ratification of the Congress of each bloc member, a delegated faculty member had been formed in the economic and commercial fields. the legislature of the Old Continent and can start to to be operational in advance.

"At this point, the writing is being finalized and the initialization starts with the chief negotiators, after which they are sent for approval by the parliaments," explained Faurie. "All chapters dealing with policy, institutional aspects, environmental issues, EU generic commitments, among others, require the approval of the European Parliament, then the return of the parliaments of each member of the European Parliament. block, while that is economic and commercial has a delegated faculty"he said.

"Therefore, unless there is an objection to discuss, if the commercial and economic aspects are approved by the European Parliament, the Commission accepts them and may therefore have a previous provisional application," he said.