Uruguayan Foreign Minister talks trade with US’ Pompeo
Gage Skidmore

UrduPoint | 15 October 2020

Uruguayan Foreign Minister talks trade with US’ Pompeo

by Fahad Shabbir

MONTEVIDEO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th October, 2020) Uruguayan Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have met in Washington to discuss deepening commercial ties, the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry said.

"The multiple possibilities of strengthening contacts at all levels and deepening trade ties were analyzed, all of which generates an intense activity from now on," the ministry said in a press release on Wednesday.

On January 6, before assuming the presidency on March 1, Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou asked Pompeo in a telephone conversation about the possibility of signing a free trade agreement (FTA).

Lacalle Pou held a meeting with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale on March 23.

Hale informed the President that the Trump administration considered a trade agreement with Uruguay a "priority" adding that the existing Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) was a correct framework to develop trade relations with Uruguay.

Uruguay and the US signed the TIFA agreement in 2007 after the government of Tabare Vazquez rejected a FTA proposed by George W. Bush.

The US is one of the major destinations of Uruguayan exports. In 2019, the Uruguay exported goods worth $446,2 million to the US, according to statistics agency Uruguay XXI.

source: UrduPoint