The Special Commission created in the Uruguayan Senate to analyze the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union met for the first time this Tuesday and received the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mario Lubetkin. The chancellor said he had received “extraordinary support” from the members of this commission, made up of 15 legislators. The trade agreement was signed on January 17th in Asunción, after negotiations that lasted more than 25 years.
The chancellor highlighted in a press conference this Tuesday “that the immense majority of the Uruguayan Parliament will follow and ratify the agreement”, which he defined as a “pride” for the country. “That was the signal we wanted to receive today and, from now on, a dialogue begins between this Special Commission and the different productive groups in our country throughout this week”, detailed the minister.
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Lubetkin will be received again by this committee next Monday, February 23, in the company of the Minister of Economy and Finance, Gabriel Oddone, for “the second part of the exchange between the government and Parliament”. “We hope that next week this Parliament will ratify it and we will begin to build the new phase that will, without a doubt, be very complex, but very important for the future of Uruguay”, he highlighted. The body that began meeting today will also receive delegations from the productive and labor sectors.
Uruguay was the last member of the South American bloc to send the text of the agreement to the Legislature, but it still aspires to be the first to validate it. Last Friday, Argentina took the lead and ratified the agreement in its Chamber of Deputies. Lubetkin hopes that, before the end of March, all members of the bloc will have completed this phase, and then it will remain to wait and see “what Europe will do given a precise signal”.
