Paraguay will host from this Monday (29.06.2020) the ministerial meetings and working groups of Mercosur that will precede the Summit of Presidents on Thursday, when Mario Abdo Benítez will hand over to his Uruguayan counterpart, Luis Lacalle Pou, the presidency of a regional bloc in quarantine due to the coronavirus.
The pandemic will be one of the central themes of the summit, which, due to health and mobility restrictions, will be held by videoconference, like the other meetings.
A meeting that was initially going to be held in the city of Encarnación (south), one of the main Paraguayan tourist destinations, on the border with Argentina.
Abdo Benítez, who will open the virtual summit from the headquarters of the Central Bank Paraguayan President, received the presidential baton of Mercosur in December 2019 from his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, at a meeting in which the bloc reaffirmed its vocation for free trade.
Paraguay took over the six-month presidency with the commitment to continue promoting multilateralism, although the arrival of the pandemic in the region conditioned its mandate and prevented work meetings from being held in person.
Despite these conditions, talks with the European Union (EU) are still ongoing to conclude the legal review of the trade agreement, as well as negotiations with Singapore, Korea and Lebanon., within the commitment to multilateralism and trade agreements with other regions.
A Mercosur in pandemic
The four presidents of the bloc have already met by videoconference to try to coordinate actions and joint purchases of medicines to deal with the pandemic, although within their borders each country applied its own measures.
Uruguay has been raised as an example for the region for its rapid and efficient control of the pandemic, which since March has left just over 900 infections and 26 deaths in that country.
Paraguay also took effective measures with urgency, which initially gave good results, but the numbers began to skyrocket as restrictions were lifted.
The number of people infected since March in Paraguay has risen to 1.942, with 15 deaths and 882 active cases, according to data updated as of Saturday.
For his part, AArgentina reported 2.401 new cases on Saturday, which brings the country's total to 57.744 positive cases, while the number of deaths is 1.207.
The increase in the rate of infections has led the Government to tighten the quarantine in Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area, the epicenter of the pandemic in the country, at least until July 17
The most critical situation is the one experienced in Brazil, where the number of infections exceeds 1,3 million and more than 57.000 have been registered, while Bolsonaro continues to encourage de-escalation and maintains his skepticism about the pandemic.
First summit between Alberto Fernández and Lusi Lacalle
This virtual meeting will be the first for Lacalle Pou, who assumed the presidency of his country in March, and for Alberto Fernández, the president of Argentina.
Fernández took office a few days after the previous summit was held in the Brazilian town of Bento Gonçalves, the last for his predecessor, Mauricio Macri, who on that occasion defended the South American bloc's vocation for free trade.
Uruguay's then vice president, Lucía Topolansky, participated in that meeting on behalf of Tabaré Vázquez, but he did not attend due to his illness.
Source: Reuters
Aduana News is the first Argentine customs newspaper to launch its digital version. With 20 years of experience, its publications and initiatives aim to provide the most relevant knowledge on customs issues in order to contribute to safe trade in the region.
