MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

25.000 tons of wool for China.

The Beijing government promised to acquire 25.000 tons of Uruguayan industrialised wool and open its market to dairy produce and fresh fruit, following an official visit to China by Uruguayan vice president Luis Hierro.

"Uruguay is betting strongly in China, a country with which we have an excellent relation and is one of our foreign policy priorities", said Mr. Hierro in Beijing.

Mr. Hierro said that Uruguay "needs the Asian giant as a political and economic reference, in a world that up to now has been dominated by United States and the European Union".

Mr. Hierro said that Uruguay "fully backs Beijing aspiration to become a World Trade Organisation full member", and added that in spite of the "its limited market, Uruguay is an excellent door of access for Chinese long term investments targeted to Mercosur".

The Chinese government also committed itself to a more transparent import licencing system to boost bilateral trade and to "authorize Chinese provinces to acquire Uruguayan produce directly".

China has been for the last fifteen years Uruguay's main market for greasy and industrialised wool.