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August 13, 2024 – 12:29
Senior representatives of Mercosur and China resumed talks on Monday with a view to deepening their relationship, at a meeting at the request of Uruguay, the current pro tempore president of the South American bloc and promoter of a free trade agreement with the Asian giant.
Six years after the last meeting, also held in Montevideo, the VII round of the Dialogue Mechanism between Mercosur and China was led by the Uruguayan Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Nicolás Albertoni.
Speaking to reporters, Albertoni said China had promised to present a roadmap in the coming months “for what it called strengthening dialogue.”
“Although market access is on the horizon,” the trade issue generates different positions in the countries, which is why China proposed a logic of “advancing on issues of decreasing sensitivity,” explained the Uruguayan vice-chancellor.
The meeting was attended by delegates of equal rank from the four founding countries of Mercosur: Leopoldo Shaores (Argentina), María Laura da Rocha (Brazil) and Patricia Frutos (Paraguay), as well as Chinese Vice-Chancellor Hua Chunying.
“We know that there are some who want to wait longer, others who, like us, want to move forward tomorrow, and what we see on the Chinese side as a middle path that suits us quite well,” he said.
“Today’s (Monday) dialogue is not a minor step,” Albertoni emphasized.
Uruguay has insisted that Mercosur reach a free trade agreement with China, and has even started bilateral talks with Beijing. This has caused tensions within the regional bloc, which has not yet managed to conclude the agreement with the European Union that it has been negotiating for more than two decades.
The goal is not easy to achieve: Paraguay lacks relations with China because it recognizes Taiwan, something that Beijing does not tolerate.
Albertoni said that this issue “was indeed on the table” on Monday, but “in an absolutely respectful climate and not as an obstacle.”
“Everything that was said was about the glass being full, that is, about what unites us,” he said.
Founded in 1991, Mercosur is the main recipient of foreign investment in South America and has a GDP of 2.86 trillion dollars.
In the last half of 2023, China was the main destination for Mercosur exports and imports, according to the most recent statistical report from the bloc’s secretariat.
The Mercosur-China Dialogue Mechanism held its first meeting in 1997, and there were others in 1998, 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2018.
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