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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

Paraguay’s foreign minister travels to Brussels to discuss Mercosur-EU export quotas

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Official statement Ongoing story
  • Paraguayan Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez traveled to Brussels for meetings with European Union officials on Mercosur export quotas.
  • Paraguay supports dividing the quotas equally among the bloc’s four members, but Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay have moved closer to one another, leaving a significant disagreement with Asunción.
  • Ramírez is also scheduled to travel to Paris for meetings with France’s foreign minister and the OECD secretary-general.

Paraguay’s Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez traveled to Brussels for talks with European Union officials over how Mercosur’s export quotas to the bloc should be distributed. The Paraguayan Foreign Ministry said the meetings would begin on Monday.

The dispute concerns the free trade agreement between Mercosur and the EU, which entered into force on May 1. Mercosur was founded in 1991 by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, but its members have not agreed on how to divide the available export quotas.

There is a closeness of positions between Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

· Mario LubetkinUruguay’s foreign minister described the alignment among three Mercosur members.

Uruguay’s Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin said after a Mercosur foreign ministers’ meeting that Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay were close in their positions. He also said a significant difference remained with Paraguay, which supports allocating 25% of the quotas to each member.

An important difference.

· Mario LubetkinLubetkin used the phrase to describe the remaining disagreement with Paraguay.

The ministers agreed to meet again in Uruguay within 45 to 60 days to advance the issue. Paraguayan President Santiago Peña called in July for greater flexibility from Mercosur partners and argued that Paraguay’s landlocked status should be recognized in the allocation. “Every container leaving Paraguay, a landlocked country, travels hundreds of kilometers and carries an extra cost that no other country pays,” Peña said, describing this as an asymmetry.

The Paraguayan Foreign Ministry also said Ramírez would travel to Paris on Wednesday. He is scheduled to meet France’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot and OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann. The OECD announced in October 2025 that it would assess Paraguay’s public policies as part of a process that could take up to three years while the country seeks full membership.

Every container leaving Paraguay, a landlocked country, travels hundreds of kilometers and carries an extra cost that no other country pays.

· Santiago PeñaParaguay’s president argued that the country’s landlocked status should influence the quota distribution.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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