Weekly Report - 06 July 2023 (WR-23-27)

Uruguay’s President Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou refused to sign a joint statement of heads of state of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) on 4 July at the end of a summit in the Argentine border city of Puerto Iguazú. One of the main issues discussed during the summit was the free trade agreement (FTA) between Mercosur and the European Union (EU). But in a symbolic show of frustration with what he views as Mercosur’s laggardly approach to foreign trade deals and failure to remove internal trade barriers, Lacalle Pou pointedly refrained from putting pen to paper.