Mercosur and Canada discussed in Ottawa the possibility of launching a free trade agreement (FTA) between September 17 and 21, 2018, according to the release of the Argentine Foreign Ministry.
Advances
With a positive working climate, the delegations of Canada and the bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay achieved substantial progress in all the disciplines that the agreement will contain and, in particular, with regard to sanitary and phytosanitary measures, public procurement and the environment.
In chapters such as trade in goods and intellectual property, the groups identified common points that are key to the rapid progress of the negotiation. In turn, the consensus obtained in the texts on Gender and Small and medium businesses enabled them to be practically completed.
The parties agreed to exchange their offers for goods and public procurement at the end of October and their offers for services in February 2019.
Finally, the parties decided to intensify their work with a view to concluding the negotiation process by the end of 2019. The next round will take place from 3 to 14 December in Brasilia.
Argentina is confident that the future free trade agreement will allow it to diversify and increase its exports to a market with great potential, with a particular benefit for regional economies.
This process is in addition to similar negotiations currently underway between MERCOSUR and the European Union (EU), the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Korea and Singapore, among others.
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