Mercosur seeks to recover trade dynamism by boosting free trade

Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-22 07:27:32|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao
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MENDOZA, Argentina, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) trade bloc seek to recover the group's trade dynamism by boosting free trade among themselves and with other regions, a senior Argentine official said Friday.

Leaders and envoys from Mercosur's founding nations -- Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay -- were gathered in the Argentinean city of Mendoza for a summit of the once thriving bloc, which has been weakened by recent economic crises and political clashes.

"We have to recover Mercosur's trade dynamism, and to recover that dynamism we have to promote a number of connections, the first being the one we are negotiating with the European Union, and the one we are pushing forward with the Pacific Alliance," Argentina's Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Faurie told reporters following the summit.

The Pacific Alliance (AP) is a younger Latin American trade bloc that gathers Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia.

Mercosur is also looking to strengthen trade ties with the Near East, Oceania and East Asia, members said at the summit, with "progress made in expanding the existing accord with India, designed to grant preferential trade status to a larger number of goods."

According to Mercosur, since last summit, "there have been new channels of dialogue with Australia, New Zealand and Japan, to identify niches and areas of mutual interest for exploring potential partnerships."

However, Mercosur members said they still faced the challenge of strengthening free trade between the member states and perfecting the customs union as a tool towards greater international competitiveness.

They also needed "to strengthen the region's exporting competitiveness by reducing the production, logistics and administrative costs, both regionally and nationally."

Mendoza's local minister of finance, Lisandro Nieri, told Xinhua, "for us, it would be very important to lower logistical costs through better agreements with neighboring Chile."

The presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay attended the summit, traditionally held every six months.

Political squabbling, mainly between Brazil and Argentina and former member Venezuela, over the latter's handling of its political and economic crises, delayed this summit by a year and a half.

The bloc addressed the issue by calling for renewed dialogue between Venezuela's government and opposition forces.

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