The President of the Republic, Mario Abdo Benítez, said this Wednesday that Uruguay’s intention to negotiate a free trade agreement outside the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), “disnaturalizes” the “essence” of the South American bloc.
Source: EFE
“Obviously it denatures the essence of Mercosur, which is the common market,” The president declared to journalists in an act together with workers from the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security.
He clarified that the “position” Uruguayan is not something exclusive to the president of that country, Luis Lacalle Pou, but it is something that “A while ago” it is being spoken in Uruguay.
Uruguay has expressed its intention to adhere to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The free trade area that Uruguay wants to join has Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam as partners.
Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, Uruguay’s partners in the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), threatened Montevideo on Wednesday with retaliatory measures in case he insists on negotiating a free trade agreement outside the bloc.
Related note: Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina threaten Uruguay for agreement with China
Argentina added, through the head of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Government of Alberto Fernández, Juan Manzur, that the decisions made by the countries that make up Mercosur, which have an impact on the rest of the members, must be “agreed” and no “isolated actions”.
The Uruguayan replica did not wait.
Lacalle Pou said that his country “international law assists” and that it will deliver its request for membership of the CPTPP, despite the intimation of the Mercosur partners for negotiating agreements outside the bloc.
Mercosur rules only allow the bloc’s countries to negotiate free trade agreements with other countries in conjunction with their partners and veto individual negotiations.
