MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mercosur should work together to reach FTA with China, says Yamandú Orsi

“Europe is of little importance in the world today,” said Orsi

Uruguayan presidential hopeful Yamandú Orsi told Argentine businessmen in Buenos Aires on Wednesday that he remains “skeptical” about the possibility of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) concluding a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU), but insisted that it must remain united to reach such an understanding with China. He also admitted before the Inter-American Council for Trade and Production (CICyP) that “Mercosur is malfunctioning”.

The world “is in a complex moment where there is a lot of uncertainty,” particularly due to “the loss of Europe's leading role,” the former mayor (governor) of Canelones underlined. “Europe is of little importance in the world today,” he added. “And if anything was missing for that, there is a war in the heart of Europe,” the Broad Front (Frente Amplio - FA) candidate also pointed out.

Regarding his slim hopes of an FTA, Orsi made it clear that they stemmed “not because of Mercosur's attitude and will, but fundamentally because Europe, and some specific countries such as France, have opposed this moving forward.”

“Fortunately, in opportunities like this one, one can talk to people who are involved in the issue and I really feel much more optimistic” about the regional bloc's chances of success elsewhere.

“It is very difficult” for Uruguay to achieve an FTA with China, as President Luis Lacalle Pou has insisted, “if it is not with Mercosur,” Orsi also argued. “The option is another: it is the possibility of a Mercosur agreement or an FTA with China.” But “it is complex and it is slow,” he reckoned.

In Orsi's view, the current Uruguayan government has followed a line of openness to the international market, specifically with China, which began during the previous Frente Amplio administration. “I can hardly criticize the concrete line of action of ties with China that this government has deepened and advanced when in my government we took the initiative and made progress or tried to make progress; in other words, there is a line that is being followed, and we are in the strategic alliance phase.”

“Now, I do not imagine the Chinese or the Chinese government making an agreement with some country here, but I am sure that when they look at their agreements with Uruguay they think in terms of Mercosur,” he also explained.

Orsi also said he foresaw “the best” relations between Montevideo and Buenos Aires under his potential administration. “Nobody can think of governing Uruguay having a difficult relationship ... with Argentina,” he stressed while underlining President Javier Milei's acquiesence to dredging the port at the Uruguayan capital and “the flexibilization of Mercosur”.

“In the world, there must be few things as similar as an Argentine and a Uruguayan, not only in the way of speaking but also in the value of the word, in the idea of believing and betting more,” Orsi elaborated. “I even say that one of the characteristics of Uruguayans is that we are half slow; or one could say differently, as someone says, that Uruguayans are Argentines without intensity.”

”I envy them (the Argentines). The intensity they have... And how they get back on their feet and there they are...,“ Orsi admitted.

Regarding Venezuela, Orsi said that the Bolivarian regime of President Nicolás Maduro was ”not an ordinary dictatorship“ but rather one with ”a geopolitical issue to which attention must be paid.”