Reuters-Uruguay upgrades China ties to match big South American neighbours
November 22, 2023 5 min 884 words
这篇报道突显了乌拉圭与中国关系的升级，将其与南美邻国巴西和阿根廷相提并论。随着贸易和投资的进一步加深，乌拉圭希望摆脱南美地区贸易集团的限制，而中国则加强与南美的关系，以确保对谷物和油类等原材料的稳定供应。文章揭示了乌拉圭与中国签署合作文件，计划加入中国主导的新开发银行，以期获得更多利益。然而，由于南方共同市场（Mercosur）的存在，乌拉圭在与中国签署自贸协定上面临困境，尤其是其他成员更希望与欧洲达成协议。报道指出，乌拉圭希望通过与中国签署自贸协定，降低对中国牛肉出口的关税，从而增加出口竞争力。这次提升与中国的关系将乌拉圭与巴西和阿根廷等Mercosur成员拉近，对巴拉圭可能造成更大的隔离。整体而言，这一动态反映了国际关系中力量平衡和贸易争端的复杂性，对于乌拉圭来说，既有机遇也有挑战。
China and Uruguay upgraded their bilateral ties on Wednesday, setting the stage for further trade and investment and elevating the ambitious South American country's relations with Beijing to those of fellow Mercosur members Brazil and Argentina.
Uruguay is seeking to strike deals abroad that it hopes will be more beneficial to it than a local trade bloc, while China has for years sought closer ties with South America, in large part to secure access to raw materials such as grains and oils.
"China is ready to work with Uruguay to take establishing a comprehensive strategic partnership as a new starting point... and enrich cooperation," President Xi Jinping told his Uruguayan counterpart Luis Lacalle Pou at a meeting in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Chinese state media reported.
China, the world's second-largest economy, is already a major investor in South America and has offered tariff-free access to its huge consumer market to four countries.
Lacalle Pou first proposed a free trade agreement (FTA) with China in 2021 to secure similar opportunities for its exporters as those enjoyed by Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru, and to boost exports of raw materials, industrial goods and technology.
But Uruguay faces opposition from other members of the Mercosur bloc who want to settle an FTA with Europe instead.
At present, Beijing has no tariff preference for Uruguayan beef, which constituted 67% of the South American country's exports to China in 2022, a market where there is a 12% tariff on the meat, United Nations COMTRADE data shows.
By comparison, other major beef exporters Australia and New Zealand, which have FTAs with China, pay tariffs at 3.3% and 0%.
Lacalle Pou commented on how China has become Uruguay's main trading partner and told Xi during the meeting about plans to join the Shanghai-headquartered New Development Bank.
China received 27% of Uruguay's exports in 2022, COMTRADE data shows, while Brazil purchased 17% of its outbound shipments, and Argentina and the United States 6% each.
Uruguay cannot easily sign a unilateral FTA with China because it agreed to a 'Common External Tariff' with Mercosur members, not least because the bloc reached agreement in principle on an FTA with Brussels in 2019.
The South American country has applied to join a major trans-pacific free trade pact that China also aspires to join, but Beijing must overcome major political hurdles before it can accede to the agreement and Montevideo faces the same restraints its Mercosur membership places upon it in negotiations.
Uruguay came close to signing an FTA with the United States in 2006, but its government at the time eventually rejected the deal over fears of expulsion from Mercosur if it did so.
Under the Mercosur CET, Chinese exporters must pay tariffs at 9%, should they wish to export to Uruguay, which is better than the 12% Uruguayan ranchers face on beef shipped to China.
According to a study conducted by the National Meat Institute of Uruguay in 2021, if China signs an FTA with Uruguay, the meat industry can implement a 0% preferential tariff, which will reduce tariffs by $150 million.
Xi and Lacalle Pou witnessed the signing of cooperation documents across a range of sectors including agriculture, education, and science and technology, as well as over customs inspections, which could be a boon for Uruguay's meat exports.
Uruguay is one of the few countries to run a trade surplus with China, which last year doubled to $1.5 billion from $766 million in 2021, data from China's National Bureau of Statistics shows.
The elevation of ties with Uruguay to the level of Brazil and Argentina also pushes the remaining Mercosur member Paraguay further outside China's global trade and investment network.
Agriculture-dependent Paraguay, whose main exports include beef and soybeans, is the last South American nation that has ties with democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory, and not with Beijing.
Xi said he hoped to build "a model of solidarity and cooperation between countries of different sizes, systems and cultures" with Uruguay, while Lacalle Pou invited him to visit Uruguay next year.