Guillermo Lasso proposes to emulate the European Union with a “great free trade zone” in Latin America

The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, proposed this Monday, when appearing together with his Argentine counterpart, Alberto Fernández, to create in Latin America “a large free trade zone” to be able to negotiate with other regions of the world in a “more powerful” way. .

Both presidents spoke to the press after holding a bilateral meeting at the Casa Rosada, in Buenos Aires, in which, among other issues, they discussed the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which is chaired by Argentina during 2022.

“We have agreed on CELAC, which is a multilateral organization that could serve as a platform to rebuild that unity of Latin America and the Caribbean in which we fully agree,” Lasso said.

A unit that, as he added, “is not necessarily” based on “unanimity of concepts or unanimity of ideas”, but where differences are known to be handled “in an environment of dialogue” that aims at the prosperity of the peoples.

“In November of last year I had the opportunity to propose to CELAC a somewhat practical vision in the sense that if we wanted to emulate the EU, the first step we have to take is a large free trade area in order to have greater strength and to be able to negotiate with other regions of the world in a more powerful way, all united in Latin America and the Caribbean,” he remarked.

Lasso referred to the Summit of the Americas to be held in June in the United States: “I think it is a propitious moment to resolve some internal problems in Latin America and the Caribbean and to be able to arrive united together.”

Expand Mercosur

For his part, Fernández, consulted by a journalist about whether the Common Market of the South, made up of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, could consider adding other nations, was blunt: “Mercosur is a market that works. Its enlargement, or including other members in the market is a definition that exceeds me and that in any case we will have to talk with the member countries of Mercosur”

In his speech, the Argentine, with a progressive profile, also advocated Latin American unity and assured that he shares with Lasso a common view of what the region needs.

“I proposed that together, two presidents who do not think exactly alike, we can propose to all of Latin America and the Caribbean today to start a program of fraternity that will allow us all to once again achieve the full ties that, due to the empire of the times that preceded us, They were breaking and breaking and that today we need to recover again,” said Fernández.

Accompanied by several of his ministers, Lasso arrived in Buenos Aires on Sunday to unfold today, on his first official visit to Argentina, an intense agenda that began with the traditional floral offering at the Monument to the Liberator General José de San Martín.

After his meeting with Fernández, Lasso will visit the Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty and will lead a meeting with businessmen within the framework of the “Ecuador Open for Business” program. (I)