Paraguay will leave Uruguay with a “very interesting legacy” in terms of agreed actions for the deepening and strengthening of Mercosur, according to the Foreign Ministry of the country located in the central zone of South America.
One of the most significant achievements of the Paraguayan presidency was Provide the bloc with a standard that allows for the validation of decisions taken in virtual meetings, operating modality imposed due to the pandemic.
Next Thursday, Paraguay will hand over the pro tempore presidency of Mercosur to Uruguay, after six months of intense work and achievements despite the complex situation it had to overcome due to the limitations of the coronavirus pandemic.
On the subject, the Vice Minister of Economic Relations and Integration and national coordinator of the Common Market Group, Didier Olmedo, stressed that the coronavirus pandemic did not stop the progress of Mercosur during Paraguay's pro tempore presidency, which will conclude next week.
He noted that despite the restrictions imposed on movement, the bloc's meetings continued to take place virtually to address the various technical bodies, forums and specialized meetings that deal with aspects related to integration.
He commented that one of the achievements of the Paraguayan presidency was to provide Mercosur with a regulation that allows for the validity of virtual meetings, a necessary decision to address the operational modality imposed due to the pandemic.
In this regard, he confirmed that, based on this norm approved by Mercosur, the positions adopted by the decision-making bodies of the bloc have legal validity.
"We had a very ambitious presidency with a number of meetings for the month of March, with 33 meetings, in April 54 meetings to give an example of the activity that is carried out in the Mercosur area of the different technical bodies, forums and specialized meetings linked to integration."He explained.
Despite the limitations imposed by covid-19, The Paraguayan presidency continued the work of priority planning in the four pillars established in the integration of Mercosur: economic-commercial, legal-institutional, external relations and overcoming asymmetries.
The topic of defining a Mercosur standard for electronic commerce, which is so important in this time of confinement, was also discussed. Approval will be sought at the next meeting.
Also Meetings were held related to the review of the common external tariff, the review of the regional bloc's origin regime and work was also done on the anti-corruption regulation. in Mercosur.
Likewise, an important step was taken in the completion of the pending tasks related to the Mercosur – European Union Agreement, and Mercosur – EFTA.
Last year, the political guidelines for concluding the economic-commercial chapter of the Agreement were approved, and last week the political and cooperation chapters were concluded.
"This is a bi-regional integration agreement that together creates a free trade zone of 800.000 consumers., which includes the 27 states of Europe and the countries of Mercosur”, Olmedo said.
The most recent work has focused on outstanding issues, such as the legal review of the nearly 7.000 pages of the Agreement.
The senior official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled that the Trade Commission meeting dealt with specific and urgent issues related to the day-to-day intra-Mercosur trade, which maintained its virtual meetings on a monthly basis.
There was also a meeting of coordinators of the Common Market Group, "and so there is a very interesting heritage that Paraguay will deliver, in addition to the work that is being done that will present to Mercosur the main lines of action for the decade 2020-2030, which refers to agreed actions for the deepening and strengthening of the common market.
"We want to respect the letter and spirit of the Treaty of Asunción, but adapted to the demands of today's world," said Deputy Minister Didier Olmedo.
Meetings in the framework of the closing of the semester
On the other hand, he commented that Next week, the meetings for the closing of the semester of Mercosur will be heldOn Monday, the extraordinary meeting of the Trade Commission will begin, followed by a working meeting of the sugar sector and then a review of the regulations to be approved by the Summit.
In this context, he explained that the Common Market forum will be held on Tuesday, as well as the meeting of ministers of industry and economy, as well as the presidents of central banks. While on Wednesday, the dialogue between the foreign ministers of both the founding partners and associated states is planned.
For its part, the next The Summit of the Heads of State of Mercosur will take place on Thursday, July 2 which for the first time in history will be held in videoconference format, taking into account the restrictions on movement imposed within the framework of health measures.
In this regard, he said that at the summit that day, the President of the Republic, Mario Abdo Benítez, will present a report to his colleagues on what was done in this semester.We can say that there is an interesting list of activities carried out”, the deputy minister said in conclusion.
#MERCOSUR | Did the coronavirus stop Paraguay's Pro Tempore Presidency?
➡️https://t.co/WjBYEVkQlG pic.twitter.com/k01wsAgp2c— Ministry of Foreign Affairs (@mreparaguay) June 24, 2020
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