Mercosur and Singapore are going through the final stage of the negotiations for the signing of a Free Trade Agreement, an exceptionality that stands out from the poor progress that the bloc’s foreign trade agenda maintains.
In May, a meeting of hierarchy is planned in the Asian country for which it is expected that large delegations from all the partners will attend. In the case of Uruguay, work is being done so that representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Economy and Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries can travel. Government sources told The Observer Although the negotiations are close to being concluded, there are still substantive aspects to be resolved. One of them is linked to intellectual property.
Mercosur’s negotiations with Singapore – the first member country of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with which the block negotiates – began in 2019 and until April of this year they had completed four rounds of negotiations. The expectation of Paraguay, which occupies the pro tempore presidency of the organization, was to conclude the agreement in this semester, although sources from the Foreign Ministry indicated that it will surely take a little more time.
In the Foreign Ministry they understand that the conclusion of the agreement with Singapore will not have significant impacts for Uruguay given the levels of commercial exchange that both countries have historically maintained (the average of Uruguayan exports during the last 12 years was US$18 million), although they warn which is a good sign to the extent that it accounts for a movement in the bloc’s static foreign negotiation agenda, even with states with which a path had already been started, such as the cases of South Korea, Canada and the European Union.
Canada: between the pandemic and Bolsonaro
In the case of Canada, the negotiations were officially launched in March 2018 in Asunción. To date, seven rounds have been held, the most being in July and August 2019. The eighth round was suspended due to the imminence of the lightning federal elections in Canada in October 2019 and then the covid prevented the holding of face-to-face meetings. .
Although some technical exchanges have continued remotely, substantive rounds of negotiations have not been able to be convened since the arrival of the pandemic, mainly because Canada has indicated that face-to-face meetings were necessary for reasons of confidentiality at this advanced stage in which they must be discussed. the most sensitive issues such as market access.
Although this has been the official explanation for the lack of convening a new round, the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau maintains apprehensions from the political point of view based on the rejection that exists in the Canadian environmental movements to the environmental policy of Jair Bolsonaro, especially regarding the deforestation of the Amazon and its effects on indigenous communities.
Despite the interest that exists in the Canadian industry for this agreement, the Canadian government could be speculating on the possibility of a more politically friendly scenario to sell the agreement to its electoral base after the next elections in Brazil.
For their part, the four Mercosur countries have given clear signals to Canada that they want to move forward with the negotiations
The European Union, Korea and the lack of political will
In the cases of the European Union and South Korea, the stagnation is strictly due to political reasons. Several opponents of the agreement persist in the European organization, including France, which with the renewal of Emmanuel Macron’s mandate ensures five more years of delay.
Foreign Minister Francisco Bustilo began his administration in 2020 with “ciphered hopes” of achieving the signature that would ratify the agreement by the end of that year, but a few months later he assumed a pessimistic position regarding the chances of success, and went on to remark that neither not even an agreement had been reached, but an “agreement in principle” still unfinished, beyond legal review.
After a couple of appearances before Parliament in which he insisted on that point – and even argued that the high profile of the 2019 ads responded to the fact that “the elections were coming” in Argentina and “it was necessary to show an achievement in terms of politics abroad”–, the Colorado deputy Ope Pasquet made a request for reports to the Foreign Ministry to know the status of the negotiations, and the details of what is owed.
In the response, to which El Observador agreed at the time, Bustillo confirmed that to date “the negotiations have not concluded” and stated that “since the negotiating process has not concluded, it is difficult to foresee the date of the signing of the agreement” .
“To date there are trade issues pending agreement, in addition to the legal and formal review of the texts and their translation. Likewise, Mercosur and the European Union agreed to the simultaneous publication of the texts agreed upon to date. The documents have been published progressively as they are confirmed by both parties, but it should be noted that they are not valid as of today,” the foreign minister said.
As for South Korea, Argentina conveyed that it had no interest in participating in the negotiations but showed no opposition to the rest of the bloc’s partners moving forward. When the possibility of an agreement was raised, there was also Brazilian resistance. On the Korean side there is no longer the same enthusiasm.
