Uruguay believes it is feasible to conclude a free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union by the end of next month, after two decades of negotiations, the South American country's foreign minister, Rodolfo Nin Novoa, assured Efe on Thursday (30.05.2019).
The head of Uruguayan diplomacy considered the date of June 28 for a possible meeting of the foreign ministers of Mercosur and the EU to finalize the agreement.
«If we, at the technical meeting in Brussels in June, can make a lot of progress, it would not be difficult for us, the foreign ministers, to be there before the end of the month, around the 28th, to address those chapters that are more political, and try to close the agreement.«He declared.
"We believe that there is an external electoral and political framework that is favorable to speeding up or putting the final will towards the conclusion of this negotiation," added the minister, a member of the ruling leftist Frente Amplio.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said this week that Brazil has a "renewed commitment" to negotiating the agreement, although she declined to give a date for closing the deal.
Nin Novoa said he was confident that he would be able to give a final boost to this process during a bilateral meeting with Brazil on June 7, "to advocate in depth for the issue of Mercosur.".
An agreement that would be concluded under the slogan that "we should not ask for more things from either of us and we should close with what we have, because there will always be time to improve, there will always be time to go deeper," according to the chancellor.
For the minister, the most complex aspect of the last technical round will be "the agricultural chapter", specifically that of "geographical indications", decisive for the European club in all its trade agreements due to the volume of unique and globally recognised products originating from the EU.
An example of such products is "Parmesan cheese", which has been produced for years in the South American block.
On the other hand, the foreign minister rejected the hypothetical exit of Uruguay from Mercosur, which is being defended by some opposition groups, as "a very serious mistake, without a doubt."
"From an economic point of view" it would mean "that every time 30% of our exports go to Brazil, we have to pay a common external tariff, and that is unfeasible," stressed Nin Novoa, recalling that Mercosur is "the only deep integration agreement we have."
Regarding the Forum for Progress and Development of Latin America (Prosur), which was created at the initiative of Chilean President Sebastián Piñera, the foreign minister said that Uruguay will remain an active observer.
In this regard, Nin Novoa criticized the fact that "Chile put this together under the cover of the democratic clause," something that excluded Venezuela from the agreement, and clarified that "those who define democracy are political scientists and not governments: I cannot define the democracy of another country."
Source: Reuters
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