La LXI Mercosur Summit formally begins this Monday (05.12.2022) in Montevideo. During the two days of the event, Uruguay will hand over the Pro Tempore Presidency to Argentina for the first six months of 2023.
The presence of the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, together with his Paraguayan counterpart, Mario Abdo Bénitez, the host Luis Lacalle Pou, and Brazil's vice president, Hamilton Mourao, who will represent President Jair Bolsonaro, has been confirmed at the Ordinary Meeting of the Common Market Council.
According to official sources, dignitaries from Mercosur member states Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Suriname will also attend. Bolivian Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta, whose country is in the process of joining Mercosur, will also be present.
The summit will undoubtedly focus on the recent warning issued by Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay to Uruguay after it was announced that the country had formally requested to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The three countries warned that they "reserve the right to adopt any measures they deem necessary to defend their interests in the legal and commercial spheres" if Uruguay continues with individual negotiations.
Uruguay's partners outlined their position on "the measures of the Uruguayan government aimed at the individual negotiation of trade agreements with tariff dimensions" and on the partner's intention to submit a request for CPTPP membership.
Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez also said that Uruguay's intention to negotiate a free trade agreement outside the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) "denaturalizes" the "essence" of the South American bloc.
This complex problem raises the question of how member countries will continue to develop the joint economic space based on the rules of the game agreed upon when the Treaty of Asunción was negotiated.
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