After three years, the Mercosur countries and Singapore announced this Wednesday (20) the conclusion of the negotiation stage of a trade agreement that reduces the common external tax by 10%.
In a speech at the 60th Ordinary Meeting of the Common Market Council, held in Luque, on the outskirts of Asunción, Paraguay’s Deputy Minister of Economic Relations and Integration, Raúl Cano Ricciardi, said that during this semester, when the country held the rotating presidency bloc, three rounds of face-to-face negotiations were held with Singapore.
Cano said that these contacts “resulted in the conclusion of negotiations on the next-generation free trade agreement” between the parties. He also highlighted that it was “the bloc’s first trade agreement with a Southeast Asian country.”
In April, representatives from Singapore and Mercosur resumed face-to-face discussions, suspended since March 2020, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Singapore is the first country of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) with which Mercosur is negotiating such an agreement.
In 2021, Mercosur exports to Singapore reached US$5.9 billion, while imports reached US$1.25 billion. As it is an important trading post in Southeast Asia, Singapore is the sixth main destination for Brazilian exports, with US$ 939.360 million in shipments in June 2022, or 2.88% of the total sold by the country.
The conclusion of the agreement with Singapore is still seen by Paraguay as a mark to be left in Mercosur before handing over the rotating presidency of the bloc to Uruguay for the next semester.
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