Mercosur foreign ministers and Bolivian Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta, whose country was a guest, at the 2022 Mercosur summit in Montevideo, Uruguay. Photo: File.
Uruguay has requested to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Treaty of Trans-Pacific Partnership
On Monday, December 5, at the first meeting of the Mercosur summit in Montevideo, Argentinian Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero said that his country is “concerned” about the emergence of a “unilateral” path that “could lead to a rupture” of the South American bloc.
“Bloc negotiation is more laborious and time consuming,” Cafiero wrote on social media. “That is why the best strategy is not to rush, it is to generate balanced results for all parties.”
La negociación en bloque es más trabajosa y demanda tiempo. Por eso la mejor estrategia no es apresurarse, es generar resultados equilibrados para todas las partes. pic.twitter.com/PR2UeBQ6yO
— Santiago Cafiero (@SantiagoCafiero) December 5, 2022
In another social media post, he stated, “No agreement is viable and sustainable if it then deepens the productive and scientific-technological gaps with other blocs. Industrial policy continues to be the key to the development of employment and the subsequent conquest of markets.”
Cafiero, who took the floor after the intervention of his Uruguayan counterpart Francisco Bustillo, remarked that “certain unilateral attitudes aimed at bilateral negotiations with third countries outside the bloc’s consensus are worrying.”
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Additionally, he explained that “bilateral approaches,” which have not been alien to the integration process of the four South American countries that make up the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), “are not scary.”
It is “the unilateralism of certain decisions that worries us. We are concerned to see that a path that appears to be unilateral and that could probably lead to a rupture is being taken,” he added.
Recent moves from Uruguay
Cafiero’s statement comes in response to Uruguay, which submitted its formal request for membership in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) a few days ago and hopes to advance in a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China.
Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil reject individual agreements with third countries.
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In this regard, Cafiero described the bloc as a “key tool” to “counteract the tendency towards prioritization” of the members’ economies.
Temporary presidency
This Tuesday, December 6, Argentinian President Alberto Fernández assumed the pro tempore presidency of Mercosur with the defense of the bloc’s importance for all its members as a banner.
Fernández will join the Uruguayan host President, Luis Lacalle Pou, and his Paraguayan counterpart, Mario Abdo Benítez, in a meeting that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will not attend.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/FV/SF
