Argentina’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hector Timerman, and the chancellors of the Central American Integration System (SICA), stated in a joint statement that they had met on Friday March 27th in order to stimulate and strengthen the cooperation and the diversification of trade between both regions.
As part of the meeting, the Argentine Minister proposed a Framework Partnership Agreement between SICA and MERCOSUR to promote, among other initiatives, political dialogue, cooperation, trade and reciprocal investment.
The chancellors of SICA agreed to "examine the proposal and to schedule a meeting between SICA and MERCOSUR during this semester with the aim of discussing relevant ideas for both groups of countries.”
After the meeting the Council of Ministers of SICA (composed by Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Belize) and the Argentine Foreign Minister agreed to develop synergies and share experiences to improve their linkage into the international economy, in order to increase market competitiveness, attract investment and promote cultural industries, among other things.
In that regard, they stressed their mutual interest of establishing a mechanism for political dialogue and cooperation that could facilitate joint initiatives in different areas of interest among the member countries of SICA and Argentina.
The ministers highlighted the sustained growth in trade between Argentina and the SICA member countries as well as the importance of the actions carried out in the region by the Argentine South - South Cooperation Fund and Triangular (FOAR) to develop their cooperation.
Source: marcotradenews.com