Lebanon signs Latin America free-trade pact

BEIRUT: Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil has signed a free-trade agreement between Lebanon and the Mercosur countries of Latin America, stressing on the importance to maintain good relations with the bloc.

The memorandum of understanding, which Bassil signed in Parana, Argentina, facilitates trade between Lebanon and the sub-regional bloc, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The agreement was signed during the 47th ministerial meeting for the group Tuesday, which also includes associate member states like Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, as well as two observer states, Mexico and New Zealand.

Tunisia also signed a similar agreement with Mercosur.

“Signing a trade agreement between a state and a bloc is not a new thing,” Bassil said in a speech at the conference.

“But when the free-trade agreement is between the small Lebanon with a Gross Domestic Product of $40 billion, and the Mercusor countries in Latin America, which is the world’s 5th largest economic bloc with an total GDP of $5.4 trllion, this has a lot of significance for Lebanon.”

Bassil reiterated that the size of trade between Lebanon and Latin America, which has about 12 million Lebanese and their descendants, has not exceeded $14 million per year during the last five years.

This disappointing number, he said, indicated that Lebanon only orients one percent of its exports to Latin America, and that each Lebanese person in the southern continent only purchases what is worth $1 of Lebanese products each year.

Bassil, who began his speech in Spanish, stressed on the good relations between Lebanon and the Latin American countries.

“Lebanon exported to you during the 18th century the most valuable of what it had, which was its youth and energy,” he said addressing the ministers.

“You are witnesses of the positive role of the Lebanese in the development and prosperity of your economies, and on their ability to in your societies.”