With a call to deepen integration, Argentine President Alberto Fernández inaugurated this Friday (26.03.2021/30/XNUMX) the Summit of the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), XNUMX years after the Treaty of Asunción.
The meeting was broadcast in its entirety on the Argentine government YouTube page. In a speech before his peers from Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Bolivia, Fernandez said that since his birth he has shaped a true milestone in Latin America, which has become a zone of peace for dialogue, cooperation and building a path to development.
Taking stock of the last three decades, he stressed that Mercosur “It is an intangible asset with an integrative vocation” And in these 30 years, important consensus has been reached, such as the commitment to democracy and respect for human rights.
In this regard, the head of the Pro Tempore Presidency of Mercosur proposed an observatory of the quality of democracy in the region, another one, referring to gender violence and a third one, related to climate change.
During his opening remarks, Alberto Fernández noted that this anniversary finds the region in the throes of a pandemic that “has disrupted the very foundations of the world as we know it and is compounded by global challenges such as climate change and the unequal distribution of the benefits of trade and technology.”
Along these lines, he highlighted the key role of the bloc in acting in a cohesive manner in international arenas where the rules of the game are being rewritten in the global world. And he emphatically stressed that, in these thirty years, “The integration process taught us the importance of building mutual trust.”
Regarding the fundamental role of Mercosur as a platform for economic and commercial development, the Argentine President recalled that this alliance currently exports more than 120 billion dollars of food, a figure that places it in a position of international relevance and central to international negotiations.
"We must leverage our food production capacity and improve the conditions of our products to enter foreign markets."He added.
The president insisted on redoubling efforts to advance on key issues such as improving the common external tariff and coordinating macroeconomic policies.
"Even if we think differently, the will to integrate and build a common agenda must prevail.. We look forward to many more years of MERCOSUR,” he stressed.
The Presidents of the States Parties and Associates then took the floor and reiterated the need to deepen integration and modernization as a vital process for development.
The Treaty of Asunción, which established MERCOSUR, was signed on March 26, 1991 in Paraguay. The bloc is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and other countries that have been associated during its 30 years of existence.
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