Uruguay, China to discuss possibilities of trade pact

Uruguay and China will discuss the possibilities of signing a trade pact between their two nations in an economic and trade forum which opened in Montevideo on Friday.

The forum, Road To China, which aims to strengthen economic and trade exchanges between Uruguay and China, will discuss the possible trade pact as well as the challenges and opportunities that the two countries face in the trade and economic fields.

Uruguay's Deputy Finance Minister Mario Bergara, who opened the forum, said that Uruguay was looking into opportunities with the rest of the world, even though its main focus was on local trade organization through the Southern Common Market (Mercosur).

"China has an enormous market and there are many things that can be traded with the Asian country," Bergara said.

Special guest Viviana Arneda, head of the Chilean Foreign Ministry's trade section in Asia and Oceania, told the conference about Chile's experience of negotiating with China.

Arneda said that China had become Chile's fifth largest trading partner since the Chile-China free trade agreement was signed in November 2005.

About 300 people attended Friday's forum, including China's ambassador to Uruguay, Wang Xiaoyuan, as well as government officials and business people from Uruguay, Argentina and Chile.

Source: Xinhua