Amid Mercosur Tension, Uruguay Announces Progress on China Trade Deal

After talks with Alberto Fernández on the economic course of Mercosur, the President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, announced on Tuesday the progress of his country’s trade agreements with China. The Argentine government has assured that was informed of the negotiations.

As the newspaper reports The country, Lacalle Pou summoned a meeting with representatives of all political parties. The meeting took place on Tuesday afternoon.

“The President convened this meeting to provide relevant information on the latest advances in the field of trade agreements with third countries, in particular with the People’s Republic of China, ”said the statement issued by the Uruguayan government.

“The president and the national government have expressed in various instances the opening vocation of Uruguay and the need to conclude trade agreements in order to generate opportunities for progress for the country ”, adds the text.

Informed official sources Bugle that the Uruguayan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Francisco Bustillo, contacted by telephone his Argentinian counterpart, Felipe Solá, to inform him of the meeting that Lacalle Pou would be holding, before it became public.

“They told us that the Chinese ambassador told them that there were possibilities of concluding a trade agreement,” they said from the Argentine government, without yet carrying out assessments on the impact of the news. .

The Uruguayan president’s summons included different sectors of his country’s political arc. As detailed The country, Pablo Iturralde (National Party), former President Julio María Sanguinetti (Colorado Party), Pablo Mieres (Independent Party), Guido Manini Ríos (Open Council), María José Rodríguez (Large Front), Daniel Peña (People’s Party) and César Vega (Uncompromising Radical Ecologist Party).

Hard crosses

The tension between Uruguay and its Argentinian counterpart was reflected in March this year, when Fernández, as Mercosur’s pro tempore president, organized a summit that was ultimately held virtually due to restrictions imposed by the coronavirus.

During this meeting, Lacalle Pou who told Fernández that Mercosur must not be a “laggard” for countries or have a “corset”.

Argentinian President he answered harshly: “That we can all feel that we are brothers. If we have become something else, a burden, I’m sorry. We didn’t want to be a burden on anyone. it is to get off the boat if this load is heavy. Let’s end with these ideas that don’t help unity much. We don’t want to be anyone’s burden. If we’re a drag let them take another boat“.

The friction was repeated at the last summit, held on July 8. Prior to the meeting, the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry communicated to its Mercosur partners that would start negotiating trade agreements with third countries.

During his speech, Fernández brought up the subject again. “Argentina supports proposals in accordance with Article 1 of the Treaty of Asunción, which governs us, which preserves the principle of the common commercial policy. This implies that the negotiations must be started and concluded jointly“, he underlined.

And he added: “As our beloved Pope Francis would say, we must be artisans of harmony, sow good, be prophets of hope. With this in mind, Argentina once again reaffirms that no one is saved alone“.

After the crossovers, Fernández and Lacalle Pou tried to work things out in a bilateral meeting held on August 13, when Fernández received Lacalle Pou at Quinta de Olivos.

However, in the statement released on Tuesday, the Uruguayan government insisted on the need to seek agreements outside the regional bloc, as it had mentioned during the meeting held in July.

“On the occasion of the last summit of heads of state of Mercosur, Lacalle Pou declared that the world is becoming intertwined commercially very quickly and that with the end of the pandemic, negotiations will skyrocketSays the text.

LM