The 7th Round of Negotiations for a free trade agreement between MERCOSUR and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) will be held from today until Friday at the Argentine Foreign Ministry in Buenos Aires.
MERCOSUR's delegation is headed by the Undersecretary for MERCOSUR and International Economic Negotiations of Argentina, Victorio Carpintieri, while EFTA's delegation is headed by Jan Farberg, Director General of the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries.
The Secretary for International Economic Relations of the Foreign Ministry, Horacio Reyser, stated that "the agreement with EFTA is part of the policy of modernization of MERCOSUR, which seeks to make it a platform aimed at achieving a smart insertion of its members into the global economy.
Furthermore, he highlighted that "negotiations with EFTA are important, not only for economy and trade, but also due to their strategic significance. This agreement will supplement the future MERCOSUR-EU agreement, opening up markets in the region which are not part of the European Union and finalizing the European circle.
On this occasion, negotiations will follow up on commitments made in previous meetings, with a view to making progress on the exchange of market access offers for goods, services, investments and government procurement.
EFTA is a free trade association comprised of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, countries with open and developed economies and very high GDP per capita, which is evidence of their population's high purchasing power. EFTA is the world's 9th largest market for trade in goods and the 5th largest one for services, and has 29 free trade agreements covering 40 countries, in addition to the member countries of the European Union.
