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Argentina to join Pacific Alliance as observer

Xinhua, June 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Pacific Alliance trade bloc has approved Argentina's request to join as an observer nation, the state news agency Telam reported Thursday.

The approval, granted late Wednesday at a ministerial meeting of alliance members in Mexico City, paves the way for Argentine President Mauricio Macri to attend the bloc's upcoming summit slated for July 1 in Puerto Varas, Chile.

The Pacific Alliance was founded in 2011 by Chile, Mexico, Peru and Colombia to promote trade with Asian countries. Argentina is a full member country of the alliance's southern-cone counterpart, Mercosur (the Southern Common Market).

"Argentina is not going to make any trade policy decisions that haven't been agreed to with Mercosur," national deputy Ricardo Alfonsin, who sits on the lower house Foreign Relations Committee, told Telam, stressing that "being an observer is not the same as being a member."

Alfonsin described forging closer ties with the Pacific Alliance as a "positive" step, but reiterated that "we are going to integrate ourselves with the global (economy) from Mercosur."

But not everyone in the lower house committee was pleased with the news.

The committee's vice president, Guillermo Carmona, said applying for observer status was "a unilateral decision" made by Macri's government without consulting fellow Mercosur members -- Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela.

"Being an observer doesn't imply being a member, but it appears to be the first step," said Carmona, adding "we reject the direction the Argentine government is taking, because we believe these policies will destroy the domestic market and Mercosur, and affect Argentina's industrial production and the sources of employment."

"It's a sign that confirms the government has decided to follow that path," he added.

Greater collaboration between the two regional blocs has been expected, given the rise of pro-business administrations in Brazil and Argentina, the region's No. 1 and No. 3 economies, media reports said. Endi