Mexico will promote a trade agreement with Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia and Honduras for the exchange of food without tariffs that will fight inflation, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced Thursday during his usual morning conference.
The purpose of the agreement is “to face the cost of living together,” said the president.
López Obrador indicated that for the realization of the agreement he already spoke with the presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of Brazil; Gustavo Petro, from Colombia; Miguel Díaz-Canel, from Cuba, and Alberto Fernández, from Argentina, who promised to talk with his peers from Chile and Bolivia to join the initiative. Honduras is also expected to be incorporated into the agreement.
When talking about the details of the agreement, the ruler reported that they will seek to “remove tariffs, barriers that prevent food from being obtained at a good price for the internal market of the countries.”
On April 5, the leaders will have a teleconference and later a face-to-face summit, López Obrador specified.
During the first half of 2022, all Latin American countries faced strong inflationary pressures, like the rest of the world, due to the crisis generated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The rise in prices could be contained as of June in some Latin American countries thanks to the increase in interest rates and other measures adopted by the governments, with the exception of Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, Haiti and Suriname which, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), have suffered from “chronic inflation” for several years.
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