He Secretary of the Presidency, Álvaro Delgado, I consider that Uruguay “did all the homework” to ratify the signing of the agreement between the mercosur and the European Union (EU), that has been negotiating for 25 years, a period that “is not logical”, as defined some time ago by the President Luis Lacalle Pou.
For Slim, The country is facing a great opportunity and stressed that the government is following the guidelines of the EU in climate matters. By focusing on that agenda, he maintained that the country “did all the environmental duties, which are requirements to be able to sign the agreement.”
The hierarch expressed himself like this during a consultation breakfast organized by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation of Uruguay, where he was “hopeful” that it is Spain the country that manages to sign the ratification of the agreement during its pro tempore presidency of the bloc.
The words of Slim They arrive just over a year after the summit of leaders of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and the EU, where there was a rapprochement between blocks, which was not enough to seal an agreement.
In fact, the reference Secretary of the Presidency to environmental requirements are linked to the strict position of the EU on demands that led to complaints from different countries of the regional bloc, with Brazil to the head, who considered them an “exaggeration”.
The commercial relationship with Spain
In parallel, Slim highlighted the commercial, cultural, and human ties that unite the country with Spain, with diplomatic relations dating back to 1870. The hierarch even described the European country as the “head of Iberoamerica”. And he expressed the importance of increasing trade with the European country.
In turn, he considered that the relationship still has development potential: “We have the challenge with Spain to strengthen commercial issues. trade with Spain It’s 300 million dollars. Even though it more than doubled, especially in 2021 compared to 2020, we have the challenge of expanding our commercial exchange.”
He also stated that in Spain lives the second largest community, with about 80,000 Uruguayans, while some 70,000 Spaniards live in Uruguay. “I believe that the cultural imprint of effort, sacrifice and work that a large part of the Spanish taught us still permeates in Uruguay and it’s a nice lesson”, he concluded.
Source: Ambito
