“We held a work meeting, by way of overview, as part of this new task we have undertaken to meet more frequently and engage in permanent dialogue, in this case in order to assess the first three months between the Presidency pro tempore of Argentina and that of Brazil and to work jointly along the same lines,” Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra stated today at the Palacio San Martín, after chairing a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Ministers of the States Parties signatories to the Treaty of Asunción.
Following the meeting with her counterparts from Brazil -the newly appointed Aloysio Nunes Ferreira-, from Paraguay, Eladio Loizaga, and from Uruguay, Rodolfo Nin Novoa, Malcorra highlighted: “The meeting addressed two main issues, the first of which is the strengthening of the internal integration of Mercosur. We worked on very specific issues pertaining to barrier elimination, transit improvement within Mercosur, and the discussion of matters such as Government procurement. This part of the meeting seeks to enhance Mercosur internally, which is important because, now that we are opening up to the world, we need a much more active internal market.”
“The second part addressed Mercosur’s foreign affairs. We primarily discussed the European Union. The negotiating team will arrive in 10 days, so we established the negotiation strategy at a political level and discussed how to approach our available options, given that there is growing interest and we must decide on the first negotiations we will conduct: we discussed the EFTA (European Free Trade Association), Korea, Japan and China. Several countries have shown interest,” Foreign Minister Malcorra added, in her statements to the press.
“The signals we have received from the European Union are highly positive. The EU has decided that it will uphold the principles and values which unite us, set forth in the United Nations Charter, and that the agreement with MERCOSUR will be a symbol of its ability to assert that leadership. Last week, the mere signing of a letter of intent with Korea awakened interest on the part of the EU as to what we were doing with other markets,” Malcorra explained.
“The technical teams of each country are at work. The task is complex, but it is ultimately not a technical but a political discussion. What Foreign Ministers must do is determine the way and the political approach so that the work by technical teams can lead us to success,” the head of Argentine diplomacy concluded.
Press release No. 060/17
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