The Foreign Ministers of Brazil, Carlos França, and of Uruguay, Francisco Bustillo, signed a joint declaration in which both countries agreed on preferential access, including for goods produced in free trade zones and special customs areas, as well as the technical requirement for yerba mate.
The agreement, the text of which was released today (10.06.2022) by the Presidency and Foreign Ministry of Uruguay, was signed within the framework of the IX Summit of the Americas, which concludes this Friday in Los Angeles (United States).
The provision was part of a bilateral agreement reached in a Negotiation with various concessions from both sides on aspects related to Mercosur. On the one hand, the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry endorsed the reduction of the Common External Tariff of the regional bloc, while Itamaraty supported a joint declaration that subscribes to the need to modernize the bloc.
The joint statement stated: "Uruguay indicated its support for the proposal to reduce the horizontal Common External Tariff under discussion in Mercosur." The official document also stated that "the current level of the Common External Tariff of Mercosur, even taking into account the exceptions to it, does not reflect the current needs of the bloc and that a reduction of it will contribute to increasing the levels of competitiveness and productivity of its economies."
At another point in the document, the governments noted that they "agreed on the need to modernize the block and in the centrality of its external agenda," through "flexible formats and mechanisms that respond to the specificities of different situations and address the interests and sensitivities of each of the four partners."
Brazil also supports Uruguay's position of making the bloc more flexible so that each country can negotiate bilateral trade agreements with third parties without requiring the approval of the other Mercosur members.
The document also notes that both governments welcomed the call for the "First Meeting of the Trinational Border Integration Committee.
Both foreign ministers stressed that the enabling of the Uruguay-Brazil waterway for the effective relaunching of commercial navigation between the two countries constitutes a "transcendent step" for bilateral physical integration.Statement from the Presidency of Uruguay)
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