Uruguay seeks to advance FTA talks with China
Uruguayan Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa confirmed Thursday that his country hopes to press ahead with negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with China and would ask the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) to consider it.
“We are absolutely convinced and committed” that “if China wants the treaty, we will do it and the parliament will approve it,” the minister said after a meeting in the Senate, where results of President Tabare Vazquez’s official visit to China in October 2016 were discussed.
A major roadblock to the FTA is that Uruguay is a member of Mercosur, which is seeking its group FTA with China. Furthermore, other Mercosur members are not keen to have Chinese goods imported through Uruguay, dodging tariffs or customs requirements.
According to Nin Novoa, the position of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay will be “key, depending on the time of the deal” reached with the Asian giant.
He also suggested that the negotiations between Uruguay and China could lead to a broader FTA with Mercosur.
“Until we have established the basis of the treaty and this has been accepted by China, we cannot ask the other Mercosur countries if they want to join us or not,” said Nin Novoa.
Mercosur requires any member to get approval from others to sign an FTA outside the bloc.
During Vazquez’s visit to Beijing in October, the governments of China and Uruguay announced that they would begin to study the feasibility of holding FTA negotiations.
China has been the main destination of Uruguayan exports since 2014.
Source: Xinhua
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200