Uruguay president keen to speed up trade partnership with China, Mercosur

Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou told Chinese Premier Li Qiang that he wanted to speed up building "a free trade partnership among Uruguay, Mercosur, and China," during a meeting in Beijing on Thursday, Chinese state media said.

China is the Latin American country's largest export market, and took 27% of Uruguay's outbound shipments in 2022, according to United Nations COMTRADE data.

But Uruguay is restrained from signing a free trade agreement with the world's second-largest economy because of its membership in a trade bloc with Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay which has expressed a preference for a free trade agreement with the European Union.