Uruguay to the next round in the Trade World Cup
In World Cup terms, Uruguay got a tie that allows them to classify for the next round. And this is good news for Uruguay, for Mercosur and for international trade. Tired of being locked into the Mercosur agreement, Uruguay took the step to start negotiations with China to reach a free trade agreement. Since expecting an agreement with Mercosur partners first was an utopia, Uruguay decided to move on unilaterally, but always saying they expect other Mercosur countries to follow.
In the last meeting of presidents in Asunción they rejected the claim they were breaking the partnership and declared at every instance, that they invite other members to join the conversations and if not, they are going to do it anyway before they sign a deal.
This is good news because it is the only way Mercosur may move on and shake off the spiderwebs that prevent any move forward, like the free trade agreement with the European Union, for example.
Abdo Benitez, the president of Paraguay was not too harsh; Bolsonaro was not there and sent a video without much content and Fernández spent his turn giving a lecture on international geopolitics and is in an introductory class in international affairs. He mentioned the deal with China and asked “Why do not we consider this together?”.
All of them know that it is a way to move the deal into a dead track, since in that case is not going to move an inch. Fortunately, the proposal did not bite, and, so far, Uruguay’s strategy keeps going: they are going to sit down and negotiate with the Chinese and leave the door open to the other partners.
If so, the next milestone will be when they reach or are about to reach and agreement and then invite Mercosur partners to join. What are they going to do? Difficult to say because it depends on who will be in power at the time: Lula in Brazil, the opposition in Argentina? We’ll see. In the meantime, Uruguay is alive in the Cup and moves to the next stage. Good news.