Natasha Niebieskikwiat
04/26/2021 21:14
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 04/26/2021 9:14 PM
Luis Lacalle Pou's Foreign Ministry tweeted at the end of this Monday that "with the full support of Brazil, Uruguay's proposal on flexibility and common external tariff formally enters Mercosur."
"Argentina, in exercise of the pro tempore presidency, calls an extraordinary meeting of the Common Market Council (Foreign Ministers and Ministers of Economy), in person in Buenos Aires the second half of May". And he reported that "the Uruguayan proposal is being
studied by the coordinators of the Common Market Group, in order to generate the inputs that enable decision-making at the next meeting of the Common Market Council."
This is how things this Monday in the region submerged in a tension that does not stop, because Argentina has a position on trade that is not the same as the rest.
The virtual meeting called by the Government to iron out rough edges after the clash between Luis Lacalle Pou and Alberto Fernández on March 26, found a new short circuit to entertain itself: the Economy Ministers Martín Guzmán and the ultra-liberal Paulo Guedes starred in a counterpoint on interpretations of the Economy.
But beyond that, the
Uruguayans advanced with their idea of making Mercosur more flexible, opening it up to trade negotiations and lowering the common external tariff.
Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo will present a kind of External Negotiations Plan for these first months of the year that includes trade talks even with the United States, China and the United Kingdom, all sensitive issues for Argentina, but also difficult to reject. That staggered plan, stated this Monday the newspaper El Observador, establishes "priorities, objectives and deadlines in order to accelerate and improve preferential access to the exportable supply of the Entities Parties in third markets."
Uruguayans affirm that they will avoid talking directly about Mercosur's decision 32/2000, which prohibits countries from signing agreements with third countries, if not Mercosur does it jointly, but speaks of applying "different speeds" to the negotiation.
But curiously, this was proposed by Argentina in its beginnings, but the pressures disrupted the level of regional understanding.
Argentina had already staged other clashes over the free trade agreements that had been negotiated since Mauricio Macri's administration with Canada, South Korea, Lebanon and Singapore, which Kirchnerism put a stop to.