MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mercosur, EFTA sign FTA in Rio de Janeiro

Negotiations began in 2017 in Buenos Aires

The Southern Common Market (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) and the EFTA states (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland) signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, creating a zone of nearly 300 million people with a combined GDP of over US$4.3 trillion.

The FTA will improve market access for over 97% of exports, benefiting businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and individuals, it was explained.

The understanding covers a wide range of topics, including trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property rights, and sustainable development.

Negotiations began in June 2017 in Buenos Aires and involved 14 rounds of talks. Both sides are committed to the swift ratification and implementation of the FTA. “This final stage included three in-person rounds of negotiations in Buenos Aires, in addition to numerous online meetings,” it was also explained.

The document was signed by Foreign Ministers Gerardo Werthein of Argentina, Mauro Vieira of Brazil, Mario Lubetkin of Uruguay, and Paraguay's Vice Minister of Economic Relations and Integration of Patricia Frutos.

On behalf of the European partners, the signatories were Vice President Guy Parmelin of Switzerland, Minister of Culture, Innovation and Higher Education, Logi Már Einarsson for Iceland, Minister of Trade and Industry Cecilie Myrseth of Norway, and Ambassador Frank Buechel representing Liechtenstein.

According to a joint statement from Mercosur authorities, “economic operators in the MERCOSUR and EFTA States will benefit from greater predictability and legal certainty in trade between their member countries.”

“As a comprehensive and broad-based free trade agreement, the MERCOSUR–EFTA FTA will cover trade in goods, trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights, government procurement, competition, rules of origin, trade defence, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, legal and horizontal issues including dispute settlement, and a chapter on trade and sustainable development with its corresponding Record of Understanding,” the communiqué went on.