The foreign minister plans to fly to the Asian giant to meet with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang.
The minister of External relationships (MRREE), Francisco Bustilloyou will be traveling to Chinabetween April 13 and 14, seeking to rekindle the interest of the Asian giant in concluding a FTA (Free Trade Agreement) with Uruguay. During his visit, she will meet her Chinese counterpart, qin gangand the Vice Minister of Trade, wang shouwen.
In July 2022, the president Luis Lacalle Pou, had announced at a press conference that the feasibility studies between the two countries had been satisfactorily completed. However, the negotiations cooled down to such an extent that Uruguay decided to change the chief negotiator with China to unlock the FTA, activating a castling between the MRREE chief of staff, Fernando Lopez Fabregatand the Uruguayan ambassador in Germany, Gabriel Bellon.
During the month of November 2022, the Chinese ambassador to Uruguay, wang ganghad commented at a press conference that one must have “patience”, since the concretion of “a state-of-the-art FTA” and “very comprehensive”.
According to the diplomat, the negotiations take due time due to “consultations and coordination with all government departments,” as well as “unions and all sectors involved.”
The Chinese ambassador in Uruguay showed restraint for the FTA negotiations
In turn, Gang noted as positive the fact that “the joint feasibility study has been successfully completed in 10 months”, even though it took longer than expected, taking into account that the initial expectations were that the approval of the study will take only three months.
The Chinese diplomat recalled that his country is analyzing a study on the feasibility of an FTA with Colombia for more than 10 years, without its culmination yet in sight.
Regarding this, Lacalle Pou himself acknowledged before the press that although Uruguay is ready to sign an agreement immediately, these processes in the “giant countries” are slower. In the past, Bustillo had admitted “delays” by China, which asked for time to “reorganize their teams.”
Source: Ambito
