Uruguay Sponsors Cuba´s Incorporation to Mercosur

Uruguay and Cuba are interested in resuming negotiations for an economic and trade complementation agreement between Havana and Mercosur.

“The agreement could be very important in trying to overcome the four-decade-long United States trade embargo on Cuba,” said Uruguayan Foreign Affairs minister Reynaldo Gargano earlier this week in Montevideo, following a meeting with visiting Cuban Deputy Foreign Secretary Rafael Dausa.

Uruguay holds the temporary chair of Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) and next week will host the group´s presidential summit when Venezuela´s full incorporation is to be considered.

“The possible 4 + 1 agreement with Venezuela was considered during the meeting we held with Dausa”, said Mr. Gargano adding that “the most certain approval of that accord would be very useful for Cuba”.

Mr. Gargano denied that the potential incorporation of Cuba to Mercosur could have a negative impact on the Investments Protection Agreement recently inked between Uruguay and United States.

Mr. Dausa said that linking Cuba to Mercosur would “make multilateral the current bilateral tariff preference systems each member has with Cuba”.

The Cuban official stressed that his two-day visit to Montevideo had the purpose of “keeping expanding political, economic, trade and social relations with Uruguay”.