The Foreign Ministers of the Alliance of the Pacific and Mercosur advanced on Friday (Buenos Aires, April 7) towards a joint line of action to deepen regional economic integration. The joint statement signed by the eight countries (Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Paraguay and Peru) called for “exploring actions of common interest in the field of regional economic integration” and proposed the setting of a road map to concretize such confluence in the commercial field.
From the economic integration perspective that seeks to forge the Alliance of the Pacific and Mercosur, the minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, Susana Malcorra, mentioned the need to move from rhetoric to facts and urged the following of the road map. The blocs will seek trade facilitation through the gradual elimination of tariff and other barriers to boost trade within the region.
“This is an important milestone in Latin American integration, because we are committed to moving forward at a time when international uncertainty reigns and there are nationalist and even xenophobic tensions. That is why we are committed to multilateralism and rule-based trade”, said Chile’s Foreign Affairs minister, Heraldo Muñoz.,
“The political purpose of these agreements is to strengthen free trade and march towards a multilateralist world,” Malcorra said. The foreign ministers of the eight countries reaffirmed “the importance of an open, predictable, transparent, inclusive multilateral trading system based on international rules”. The foreign ministers also pledged to work on these proposals at the 11th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to be held in Buenos Aires in December this year.
“We have a trade between our blocs that is very low compared to the rest of the world. Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance do not have more than 18% of the trade flow,” Muñoz said.
A meeting of experts to exchange information and experiences was agreed, aimed at implement a mechanism of regional value chains and rules of origin. There will also be a workshop Pacific Alliance – Mercosur on productive linkages for facilitating trade with a one-stop shop regime.
