After the warnings from President Javier Milei about the possibility of leaving Mercosur if he wasn't allowed to advance in a free trade agreement with United States, the international context finds the foreign ministers of the South American bloc meeting this Friday in Buenos Aires to discuss their internal situation.
"The Foreign Ministers reaffirmed the commitment to the strengthening and unity of Mercosur and the determination to modernize and explore, in a coordinated manner, how to better take advantage of the circumstances of a changing and challenging international situation," a joint statement noted at the end of the meeting.
Argentina had already proposed weeks ago, during a coordinators' meeting, to relaunch the initiative presented last year by Milei's Foreign Ministry: to relax the bloc's rules to allow member countries to negotiate trade agreements individually with third parties, something currently limited by the founding treaties of 1991 and especially by the regulations in force since the year 2000.
This Friday, Argentine Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein, in his role as host, and Ambassador Luis Kreckler, as commercial reference and national coordinator, presented a scheme of greater transparency, which contemplates the possibility of initiating exploratory negotiations by informing the other bloc partners.
