MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay seeks deeper trade relations with U.S.

Uruguay looks to Washington for trade ties but not a free-trade agreement yet, the minister of industry, energy and mining said in Miami.

Uruguayan Minister of Industry Jorge Lepra was in Miami on Friday to talk business just before he headed to Washington for five days of meetings aimed at boosting commercial ties between the two countries.

''We may be the smallest country in the area [of the Mercosur trade pact],'' Lepra told a breakfast meeting of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas. ''But we have a lot of opportunities because of our size.''.

Uruguay, a country of 3.4 million people wedged between Brazil and Argentina, has emerged from its 2001-2002 financial crisis to post 6 percent annual economic growth and hit a high of $3.4 billion in exports last year. .

Lepra, who will be in Washington next week, said the government of President Tabaré Vásquez wanted to deepen trade ties with the United States. Even though Economics Minister Danilo Astori had expressed interest in negotiating a free-trade agreement with Washington, Lepra said the Uruguayan government would concentrate on seeking better access to the U.S. market for the moment. .

Uruguay, which is part of Mercosur, or the Southern Cone Common Market, with Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, must get a special dispensation from its partners to sign a bilateral trade agreement with the United States. .

Lepra, a former top executive at Texaco Uruguay, said trade with the United States has become a larger share of Uruguay's exports because of falling trade with Brazil and Argentina. .

Exports of Uruguayan beef have soared, not only to the United States but also to South American countries because many nations have banned Brazilian and Argentine beef imports because of hoof and mouth disease. .

Because of the ban, most of the beef consumed in Argentine restaurants in Miami comes from Uruguay, said Richard D. Spradling, president and CEO of Canelones Foods, a beef exporter. Spradling attended the breakfast at the Biltmore Hotel.

One of Uruguay's goals is to increase duty-free quotas for its beef. Currently the country exports only 20,000 tons of beef without paying duties. A 26 percent duty is paid on the remaining 160,000 tons of meat. .

Besides beef, the country also exports $100 million in software, a modest amount by global standards but larger than either Brazilian or Chilean software exports. .

Financial markets originally raised concern over the 2004 election of Vazquez, a cancer doctor who led a coalition of leftist parties. But the country's policies have looked more like those of Washington and free-market-friendly Chile than those of governments of countries at odds with the Bush administration such as Venezuela. .

As Lepra made clear at the breakfast, Uruguay is interested in trade and investment, although the Vazquez government has aimed some emergency spending at reducing poverty and inequality.