Uruguay rejects Bush Trade agreement

The chancellor of Uruguay, Reinaldo Gargano, expressed on Saturday his refusal at the possibility that his country would sign a Free Trade Aggreement(TLC) with the United States, and has reinforced, however, to strengthen ties with the Mercosur. "I am not in agreement that Uruguaygo forward with a Free Trade Agreement with the United States. I am in favor of a better Mercosur; it is necessary for the integration in the region. We have already obtained that Venezuela join and now we want Bolivia to also join", reported Gargano.

In declarations before that Ansa agency in Santiago, Chile, the diplomat commented that the Uruguayan government "is progressive and has its five fundamental programmatic axes, and one of them is integration".

For Gargano, "there is no way to solve the poverty of the region if it is not with progressive policies and regional integration". The possibility of a TLC between Uruguay and the U.S.A. has been shuffled back and forth for months, after the past year Tabaré Vázquez signed two commercial agreements with his counter part George Bush, who many considered a waiting room to another more total agreement.

Source telesur, tanslated by Claudia Nelson La Fundacion OBNU