The Secretary of Foreign Trade of the Nation, Marisa Bircher, said this Tuesday (28.05.2019) that the free trade agreements that Mercosur is negotiating with the European Union, Canada and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) will allow the bloc to have agreements with 30% of the world's GDP.
During her speech at the second meeting of Businesswomen, organized by the Secretariat of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Production of the Nation, Bircher pointed out that the implementation of free trade agreements between Mercosur and these blocks "They represent a leap for Mercosur from a free trade negotiation of the current 9% of global GDP to 30% of GDP.«.
"The agreement between Mercosur and the European Union has been under negotiation for 22 years and we are ready for it to end this year, as is the case with Canada and the EFTA countries (a block made up of Norway, Switzerland, Finland and Liechtenstein).", Bircher said.
Likewise, the head of the Foreign Trade Secretariat stated that "There would be many opportunities that would open up, especially for women because that would mean more SMEs"«. He clarified: «We don't want only one out of five exporting SMEs to be led by women, as is the case in Argentina. We want more women exporting, we need more quality jobs, which is what exports generate. The export sector needs trained personnel, which is why it pays better.»
In addition, Bircher pointed out that work was done on trade facilitation. We created the Single Window for Foreign Trade to increasingly simplify foreign trade procedures.In these three and a half years of management we have eliminated one thousand four hundred procedures in general., he explained.
At the same time, the official commented that "The Exporta Simple regime was created, which allows not paying export duties, avoids intermediation and allows door-to-door exports. However, this platform is used by less than 10% of women.
The head of the Foreign Trade Secretariat encouraged women to undertake foreign trade in the agro-industrial sector. "There are huge opportunities there. Mercosur is the largest food exporting bloc in the world," stressed.
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