Originally published by: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship. Argentine Republic.

Today, Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie opened the Plenary Session of Foreign Ministers of the 54th Summit of the MERCOSUR assembled at the Common Market Council, which is being held at the historical Belgrano Station in the city of Santa Fe. There, he urged the MERCOSUR to “deepen” its “political agenda based on its strengthened role in economic and trade matters” after the agreement reached with the European Union.

The Argentine Foreign Minister stated that the agreement is “a turning point for the internal and external agenda” of the bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Foreign Ministers Ernesto Fraga Araujo, Luis Alberto Castiglioni and Rodolfo Nin Novoa participated in the plenary session.

In turn, the Secretary for International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Horacio Reyser, highlighted the important achievements made during the Argentine presidency in joint work with the partners that create opportunities and new challenges to the MERCOSUR. In the report prepared by the Pro Tempore Presidency of Argentina (PTPA), Reyser pointed out the following:

The PTPA assumed office with a specific purpose: to make the MERCOSUR more dynamic. Thus, we suggested three lines of action:

• to reform and strengthen the institutional structure of the MERCOSUR;
• to deepen the economic and trade agenda; and
• to reach specific agreements to materialize our external negotiations agenda.

First, after almost twenty years of negotiations, we have reached an agreement with the European Union which establishes the terms and conditions of the Strategic Partnership Agreement between our bloc and the EU regarding market access to goods, services, and public procurement, and the different chapters that make up the final agreement. This is a milestone for the international integration of the MERCOSUR and a turning point for the bloc. It constitutes strategic progress made to integrate our economies with the world's largest market, improve our production standards, and generate quality jobs in the region. We believe this agreement will be one of the drivers of growth in our countries in the following years.

In addition, the external agenda has been active in other fronts. We held meetings and videoconferences with Canada, Korea, the EFTA, Singapore, and Vietnam. We are making fast progress in all these cases to conclude new agreements, and I believe the successful negotiation with the European Union will give us the momentum we need to do so.

Besides the external agenda, significant progress has been made this semester in the internal agenda of the MERCOSUR. Thanks to the political determination and negotiation efforts made by all Member States, we have made great strides not only for our integration process but especially for our citizens. These are some of the main results:

• The Agreement to Eliminate International Roaming Charges for Final Consumers of MERCOSUR, which will reduce communications costs and make our citizens' lives easier, as they increasingly travel across our countries and need to be connected.
• The works of the Ad Hoc Group for the Examination of the Consistency and Dispersion of the Common External Tariff (CET) have started aiming at modifying the current CET so that our economies become more productive and competitive at the international level. This is an essential task as the CET is one of our constituent instruments, and a milestone, as this is the first time that we address the task of fully reviewing the CET since it was established 25 years ago.
• An understanding has been reached with FONPLATA to sign a Trustee Agreement aiming at improving the management of the financial resources of the MERCOSUR Structural Convergence Fund (FOCEM), a tool which has generated many and good results since its creation more than ten years ago. It is important to note that the Fund has financed more than 50 projects in our countries, so every step we take to strengthen it will have a very positive impact in our economies.
• A Legal Framework for a MERCOSUR Budget has been approved, which includes the current budgets of the different agencies of the bloc that need funding, as well as special funds, except for the MERCOSUR Parliament and the FOCEM. This was a long-delayed improvement needed for the structure of the bloc to operate in an organized and efficient way, finally materialized this semester thanks to the joint work of all member countries. It is worth mentioning that efficient public administration is a duty owed to our fellow citizens and this framework is headed exactly in that direction.
• The institutional structure of the technical and consultative forums was streamlined by eliminating agencies that were inactive or had already achieved the goal for which they were created. In addition, some forums which were competent in overlapping fields were merged to turn the operation of the MERCOSUR agencies more dynamic and eliminate unnecessary bureaucratic bodies.
• The Guidelines for the Border Health Program were approved, which shall direct public health actions and interventions in the border areas of the MERCOSUR and the bloc’s relationship with the Associated States.
• The approval of the “Regional Plan to Eradicate and Prevent Forced Labor and Human Trafficking for Labor Exploitation” and the “MERCOSUR Regional Labor Inspection Plan: Origin, dimensions and actions”, which promotes joint inspections of the work conducted in border regions.

I believe that much has been achieved during this Presidency. Some of these achievements are historic, such as the agreement with the European Union. Some are more evolutionary than revolutionary, such as those related to the internal agenda of the bloc. Still, all of them, both from an internal and an external standpoint, both in economic and social terms, aim at the same goal: to adjust our countries to the changing international situation, to make sure the MERCOSUR retains its role as a tool for the development of our economies, and to ultimately allow our citizens to improve their quality of life and look to the future with hope.

07/17/2019