The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Francisco Bustillo, appears this Friday before the Permanent Commission of Parliament to report on the progress of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China.
The Secretary of State was called due to the delays in the completion of a feasibility study with the Asian nation, according to the Broad Front. The opposition has also pointed out that China has not shown an explicit will to move forward, and they believe that Uruguay separated itself from its neighbors, Brazil and Argentina, with the decision to go ahead with the FTA, without having shown a clear foreign policy.
“There is a lack of official information in this regard, and there are delays,” said Front Ampist deputy Daniel Caggiani, at the start of Bustillo’s appearance.
The opposition legislator expressed his concern about “certain reticence” of the government when it comes to providing news about the business with China. He clarified, however, that “there is a country position” to move forward with the FTA with China.
From the Broad Front they believe that “the centrality” of foreign relations passed “from the Santos Palace to the Executive Tower,” Caggiani said, although he avoided that they do not want to talk about it, they will only focus on the negotiations with the Asian country.
Another of the issues on which the Broad Front will request information is about the actions of the ambassadors in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, because these countries are key players for Mercosur to allow progress with China.
Caggiani said that “New Zealand, Singapore, Cambodia, even the Fiji Islands are” in the official negotiations scheme of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (Mofcom), but Uruguay is not.
Caggiani recalled that there are four scenarios for the conclusion of the agreement: the first is a treaty with the flexibility of Mercosur, then the “Uruguay-China free trade agreement”, with the approval or not of the Mercosur countries. In the second case, if the neighbors do not agree, he remarked that it would be “fighting, throwing down the door and going to the m…” of Mercosur.
The third scenario consists of advancing in the agreement “with an accession clause”, and finally the “Mercosur China” agreement, according to Caggiani the best because it offers “more support”.
Bustillo began his participation by listing the fourteen appearances of the Foreign Ministry in Parliament since the beginning of the current administration in 2020, to highlight that most of the queries made by Caggiani “have already been answered.”
As soon as it started, there was a power outage in the Legislative Palace neighborhood, but the situation was resolved in the first instance thanks to the fact that the building has a power generator. However, a few minutes later another outage occurred.
After several minutes, the Parliament returned to session, and for the third time Bustillo recited the foreign relations section of the “Commitment to the country”, the government program of the current administration.
Bustillo maintained that it would have been a mistake not to join Mercosur at the time of its creation, but criticized that there is no possibility of flexibility within it. “The bloc has great difficulties negotiating with third parties,” the foreign minister criticized, after highlighting Uruguay’s agenda in its search for agreements outside the bloc.
Regarding the FTA with China, he indicated that Uruguay’s intention is to “expand and diversify the exchange agenda with China”, a country with which they maintain “excellent relations”, according to Bustillo. The minister said that the pandemic has not allowed him to visit the Asian nation, but he will do so at the “first opportunity” he has.
The chief compared the rapprochement between Uruguay and China in 2016, and explained that the difference is that the pre-feasibility study on that occasion was carried out only by Uruguay, although he acknowledged that it is used as input for the current negotiations.
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