Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies to consider MERCOSUR-Singapore agreement
Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies will consider on Wednesday the ratification of the free trade agreement between MERCOSUR and Singapore, signed in December 2023. The document is still awaiting parliamentary approval. As MercoPress reports, this is the bloc’s first trade agreement with a Southeast Asian country.
Support in the lower house
The special session scheduled for noon was initiated by Gabriel Bornoroni, leader of the La Libertad Avanza parliamentary bloc. The request to convene the session was signed by representatives of nine parliamentary groups, including PRO, the Radical Civic Union, Provincias Unidas, Innovación Federal, Por Santa Cruz, La Neuquinidad and Adelante Buenos Aires. According to the publication, this indicates sufficient support for the agreement’s approval by the lower house.
Negotiations on the document lasted several years, and the agreement was signed during Brazil’s temporary presidency of MERCOSUR. For the agreement to enter into force, it must be ratified by the parliaments of all four member states of the bloc: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
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Other agenda items
Deputies will also consider Argentina’s accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty, administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization. The mechanism makes it possible to file a single application to protect an invention in several jurisdictions at once. Argentina is one of the few countries in the region that have not yet joined this system.
The agenda includes a reduction in the value-added tax rate for cassava starch, the establishment of additional chambers of federal appellate courts in Tucumán and Mar del Plata, as well as about a dozen bills granting cities the status of national capitals in various production and cultural fields.
Tensions in the bloc
The consideration of the agreement comes amid tensions between Argentina and Brazil. According to MercoPress, on August 4 Brazil downgraded diplomatic relations with Argentina to the level of chargé d’affaires ad interim after President Javier Milei took part in an election campaign event for Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro. Paraguayan President Santiago Peña said on August 14 that the differences between the two leaders had not affected MERCOSUR’s work.
