Delegates from Singapore and the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) installed this Monday in Asunción the closing phase of the V round of negotiations with a view to reaching a trade agreement between both parties.
Source: EFE
Paraguay’s chief negotiator, Enrique Franco, told Efe that these contacts take place after the first stage of this round was held in Singapore during the second week of May.
On this occasion, the negotiators will address, among others, issues such as trade defense, investment, services, technical barriers to trade and legal issues.
About 80 experts divided into 14 groups participate simultaneously in the discussion tables.
The contacts will last until Friday in Paraguay, a country that holds the pro tempore Presidency of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) this semester.
Paraguay is expected to be the scene, at the end of June, of the VI round of negotiations.
During that next appointment, Franco anticipated, it is expected to finally sign the agreement between Singapore and Mercosur, the integration mechanism founded in 1991.
Singapore is the first country of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with which Mercosur negotiates an agreement of this type.
Franco considered that if a trade agreement with Singapore is finalized, that country can be “a place of entry to other commercial markets in Asia.”
The first round of negotiations took place in Buenos Aires in April 2019.
Paraguay holds this semester the pro tempore Presidency of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur).
