MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina wants EU to eliminate zero tariff access for Falklands' exports

Argentine minister Solá at the German embassy in Buenos Aires with EU representatives

Argentina held a meeting with the European Union ambassador and 21 of 27 EU members' representatives in Buenos Aires and formally called for an end of the support for UK Falklands' sovereignty recognition in the ongoing Brexit negotiations between Brussels and London.

The meeting was held this week at the German embassy (Berlin holds the European Council presidency) and besides Falklands the agenda included the Covid 19 pandemic and EU support through the Team Europe, Argentina's economic recovery plans and the future of the stalled Mercosur/EU free trade agreement. Other issues referred to human rights, climate change and the US elections.

It was according to the local media, foreign minister Felipe Solá's first attendance to a meeting with so many diplomats, since the lockdown started last March.

On the Falklands issue, Solá was specifically interested in emphasizing the consequences for the Islands of UK's exit of the European Union, given the sovereignty dispute, and underlined Argentina does not want exports from the Islands to have zero tariff and zero quota access to the European market.

Solá also talked about the Mercosur/EU trade deal, which is pending confirmation from all the different countries parliaments and pointed out that the group is currently holding talks with some eleven countries, at different degree of advance, “but it is not possible to advance at the same time and at the same speed with all parties”, and in a world of uncertainty and anti integration tendencies, the best approach is to concentrate on relations with those blocks with which “we share so many values, such the case of the EU and Mercosur”.

Mentioned among the shared values were multilateralism, defense of human rights, climate change and same gender issues. As to the US elections, EU representatives expressed how complicated the system was and Solá added that the political scenario has shown a polarized public opinion, with a clear “social gap”, as in most Western countries, in reference to the polarization exposed by the followers of president Donald Trump and the Democrat candidate Joe Biden.

Solá attended with several members of his cabinet and was hosted by German ambassador Ulrich Sante and the EU representative Aude Maio-Coliche.