President Luis Lacalle Pou assured that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China advances, although it does not do so at the speed expected by the government when it began bilateral negotiations outside the bloc of the Mercosur; and ensured that the pressures of the regional partners of Uruguay for stopping the agreement are “legitimate”.
The president confirmed that the country’s negotiations with China are advancing, although “perhaps the speed that one would like is not what we have today.” in dialogue with Radio Miterof Argentina, Lacalle Pou pointed out that the processes in both countries are different, mainly due to the size of the nations. “We are willing to sit down and sign tomorrow,” she ironized.
He also referred to pressure from Argentina and Brazil so that Uruguay do not advance unilaterally in terms of foreign trade, and described them as “legitimate”, despite acknowledging that the Mercosur partners know from the beginning that it is a measure that the country needs.
On this, Lacalle Pou said that he had a “hand in hand” dialogue with the Argentine president, Alberto Fernandez, with a barbecue in between, in addition to the formal and public dialogues that were known about it. “It is not my intention to argue with Alberto Fernández, but we were always very clear about what Uruguay needed,” said the head of state.
“Uruguay’s attitude is not ‘I got angry and I take the ball’. We want all of Mercosur to advance. But there is not much will, because each country has its interests, there is no urgent will to advance in agreements with other countries, Uruguay does. When we reach an agreement in principle, we will look to the side and ask them ‘shall we go?’ And if they do not want to join, we will go alone,” he added.
Why do Argentines choose to live in Uruguay?
Asked about the high number of Argentines who move to Uruguay permanently, Lacalle Pou considered in the first place that “it would be necessary to ask them what the determinants are”, and also that many of the Argentines who changed countries “already had their summer house” in Uruguayan territory.
Likewise, he assured that the country “is of open doorsnot necessarily only for Argentines, for people who want to develop with their family, live in peace and tranquility, and be able to find certainty”. “When we become adults, we begin to want to plan in the medium and long term, especially when you have a family “, explained the president, who believes that the search for certainty “is very inherent to the individual, to the human being.”
In this sense, Lacalle Pou maintained that “Uruguay is a country that luckily generates that certainty”something that demonstrates with “these almost 40 years of continuous democracy” in which “three parties and coalitions have governed” and “various conditions have been maintained” that lead the country to generate “confidence.”
Source: Ambito
