MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia private sectors unite to combat Mercosur protectionist policies

Paraguay's Eduardo Felippo says Urupabol will help boost growth and sound development

The private sectors from Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia agreed to form a business lobby, Urupabol, with the purpose of actively combating protectionist policies and other obstacles implemented inside Mercosur, mainly by senior members Argentina and Brazil.

The agreement was reached last week during Paraguay's main agriculture and industrial show, Expo 2014, and the Urupabol declaration states that the three countries private sectors will work jointly to support free trade and the rights of the smaller economies, said Eduardo Felippo, head of Paraguay's Industrial Union, UIP.

“The declaration and organization of the three countries is a milestone for the manufacturing sectors of the three members, and this should help boost growth and sound development”, added Felippo who underlined that the private sector representation should encourage the three countries to make more effective their claims to the arbitration instruments of Mercosur, “which are not respected currently”.

Representatives from Uruguay and Bolivia also agreed that the new alliance is an opportunity to grow in harmony, with no major distortions in which each country will contribute with what it excels, “be it power, natural gas of ports, a conglomerate of opportunities with which the involved companies of the three Urupabol countries can work, with direct benefit in economic growth and overall development”.

Among those signing the Urupabol Declaration were Ricardo Scaglia, from the Uruguay-Paraguay Chamber of Commerce; Eduardo Felippo, from UIP; Wilfredo Rojo Parada, from the Santa Cruz, Bolivia Chamber of Exporters; Guillermo Pou Munt, from Bolivia's National Chamber of Exporters; Javier Peña Capobianco, from the Commerce and Services Chamber of Uruguay; Juan Carlos Muñoz, from the Fluvial and Maritime Ship owners and Teresa Aishemberg, from Uruguay's Union of Exporters.