World
Uruguay advanced on 12 of 16 chapters in its accession process to the CPTPP
Deputy Foreign Minister Valeria Csukasi told La Diaria that the latest round of negotiations brought progress in the review of regulations and cleared up doubts about state-owned companies and public procurement. She also said that by the end of the month there could be news on a possible accession process to the RCEP.
Uruguay continues to move forward with its application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), an agreement that brings together Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile and the United Kingdom.
According to Deputy Foreign Minister Valeria Csukasi, speaking to La Diaria, in the third round of negotiations as an acceding country there was progress in reviewing Uruguay’s regulatory compliance. In that framework, 12 of the agreement’s 16 main chapters were deemed completed, either because local regulations already align with what is established or because they would require very minor changes that do not alter core policies.
The deputy foreign minister said that, since this is an agreement that has already been closed, countries seeking to join must show how they will comply with its provisions and, if necessary, how they will adapt their regulations. In Uruguay’s case, that meant answering 1,300 questions.
Csukasi told La Diaria that one of the issues that raised the most concern was state-owned companies, but she said the CPTPP does not require Uruguay to change its practices in that area. She added that, according to the assessment carried out, Uruguayan state-owned companies already operate in line with the agreement’s standards. She also said that in public procurement no changes would be needed to the mechanisms that currently favor domestic firms.
The official also highlighted that the latest round was useful to clarify doubts and improve mutual understanding between Uruguay and the treaty members regarding the scope of accession and the country’s particular circumstances.
Once this stage is closed, Uruguay will move on to the discussion on market access. There it will have to define what it will offer in the negotiation, before learning the other side’s proposal, Csukasi told La Diaria.
At the same time, Uruguay also expressed its intention to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the bloc made up of ASEAN countries plus China, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. According to Csukasi, unlike the CPTPP, that agreement still does not have a defined accession mechanism. The official told La Diaria that at the end of September there will be a ministers’ meeting in which accession requests will be discussed and there could be decisions on the Uruguayan case.
Meanwhile, Uruguay has already presented its position to the RCEP in a videoconference and answered a questionnaire of about 500 questions, with the aim of catching up with the countries that started down that path earlier, La Diaria reported.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with assistance from artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not conduct its own reporting on this fact.
