President Luis Lacalle Pou is in a official mission in japan together with a delegation made up of the foreign minister, Francisco Bustillo; the Minister of Economy, Azucena Arbeleche; the Minister of Livestock, Fernando Mattos, and the executive director of Uruguay XXI, Sebastián Risso. The official visit began with a business seminar in which businessmen from both countries participated, and during Lacalle’s presentation, he referred to the Uruguayan government’s willingness to sign free trade agreements “with all those countries that deem it so.”
The objective of the visit is to increase trade and investment between the two countries, especially to specify the export of bovine tongue to the Asian country. In this sense, he referred to the current state of Mercosur and Uruguay’s decision to start negotiations with several countries to sign free trade agreements (FTAs) with or without the rest of the partners of the South American regional bloc.
Lacalle Pou said that Mercosur “has not come to fruition as its founders wanted”, and added: “today we are in a process of opening, because we are aware of Uruguay’s vocation to open its markets. Of course we prefer to do it together with the big ones, Argentina and Brazil, but if this is not possible, and as we have already begun to do, we are going to make free trade agreements with all those countries that consider it so”.
Along these lines, he recalled “conversations with the previous ambassador” of Japan in Uruguay “about the possibility of Japan advancing bilaterally with Uruguay,” and commented: “he clearly told us that Japan was interested in advancing with the entire Mercosur , and we understand that this is the case. What we do not want is to close all the doors, let’s continue trading, let’s continue increasing bilateral relations, let’s use the instruments we already have and let’s continue growing. If tomorrow Japan understands that regardless of whether Mercosur is willing to make bilateral agreements or not, we will be ready to move forward”.
