Mercosur has concluded a free trade agreement with EFTA – Telam

Mercosur and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), a block composed of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, have concluded a free trade agreement in Buenos Aires, thus paving the way for a market for regional firms that import goods and services US $ 500 billion a year.

The realization of the agreement was announced this afternoon by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jorge Faurie, who said that "the agreement will strengthen Argentine exports in search of additional jobs".

"In addition, this will help improve our integration with countries with high institutional standards, a high level of development and economic equity," said the head of the San Martin Palace, where The new round of bilateral negotiations leading to an agreement is being developed.

Faurie explained that EFTA "represents a market of countries with developed economies and integrated into global value chains, with a very high GDP per capita" and understood that this agreement "is a platform for further strengthening investment by EFTA companies in the internal market ". country and promote strategic industries for the development of Argentina ".

Argentina's exports to this market of European countries total US $ 1.3 billion a year, positioning itself as the country's 10th largest export destination and now opening up growth potential since this block imports for more than 500 billion US dollars. per year and exported for over USD 630 million.

After the announcement, the Minister of Production and Labor, Dante Sica, declared that "the agreements with EFTA and the European Union open up almost the whole of the European market for SMEs and constitute an excellent opportunity to increase investments ".

Sica said the two European blocks "were the main source of foreign investment in Argentina, with a stock of 37,000 million dollars" and pointed out that "in the last three months," fundamental negotiations to integrate Argentina on the international scene "have succeeded.

Also in the framework of this agreement, the secretary for international economic relations, Horacio Reyser, explained that "the EFTA countries are open and developed economies, with much more important trade flows than this. what could be expected from a sparsely populated market?