The 11th Round of Negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement between MERCOSUR and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) will be held at Palacio San Martín from today, Monday 15 April, until Thursday 18 April.
Founded in 1960, EFTA (a bloc made up of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) is an intergovernmental organization that promotes free trade and economic integration for the benefit of its Member States. It is a significant player in international trade and a strategic trading partner for MERCOSUR.
In the first face-to-face meeting of this kind since 2019, delegations from MERCOSUR and EFTA began work on addressing various relevant issues of the Agreement for both parties. The Argentine delegation, which coordinates negotiations on behalf of MERCOSUR, is led by Ambassador Gabriel Arturo Martínez, Undersecretary for International Economic Negotiations and Integration of the Argentine Foreign Ministry.
The current round of negotiations is a continuation of the agreements reached in 2019 and the strong technical exchange that took place over the past few months. Through this round, the parties demonstrate their political will to make progress on concluding the negotiations as soon as possible.
Achieving a Free Trade Agreement between the two blocs will allow MERCOSUR to send a strong signal to the world of its capacity to enter into modern trade agreements and of the willingness of its Member States to successfully integrate into the international economy.
