The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship, Jorge Faurie, asked national producers this Thursday (01.08.2019) to "prepare themselves from now" for the implementation of the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union (EU) reached at the end of last June.
The agreement complies with the Argentine government's premise "to open markets and reconnect the country with the world," Faurie said.
The head of Argentine diplomacy asked businessmen and producers to "prepare themselves now" for the exchange between the two blocs.
Faurie made these statements on Thursday night at the Argentine National Legislators' Circle, where he explained the prospects of the agreement between Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and the EU.
Noting that the agreement could come into effect in 2021, Faurie said that the region is entering "a market of 500 million people" with the agreement.
"It is an effort that we have been negotiating for more than 20 years. Nobody believed that we could achieve it, but it was President Mauricio Macri who tirelessly sought the political opening that Argentina needed," he said.
"We have managed to access a market of 500 million people, which represents 24 percent of the international gross product. Today, the European Union exports 800 billion dollars, of which Argentina only imports 9.600 billion dollars. We have enormous growth potential," he predicted.
For Faurie, "the agreement is very important for the four Mercosur countries."
The agreement reached at the end of June between the two blocs involves a market of almost a quarter of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with more than 100.000 billion dollars of trade in goods and services, according to the Argentine Foreign Ministry.
It also includes the elimination of tariffs for 93 percent of Mercosur exports to the EU and preferential treatment for the remaining 7 percent.
As regards industrial goods, the European bloc will liberalise almost all of its trade, while Mercosur will do so by 80 percent.
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