Beretta Godoy hosted an event at the firm for the Argentine-Canadian Chamber of Commerce with Minister Victorio Carpintieri, Secretary in charge of Mercosur and International Economic Negotiations,  accompanied by José María Arbilla, National Director of International Negotiations, and Sebastián D’Alessio,  Mercosur Under Secretary, the government officers in charge of negotiating this agreement on behalf of Argentina. Officers of the Canadian Embassy in Buenos Aires and Canadian companies developing their business in Argentina also attended the meeting.

Minister Carpintieri reported on the negotiation of the trade agreement between Canada and Mercosur. Not surprisingly, mining was addressed a number of times, mostly in connection with the possibility of addressing restrictions to export withholdings in the negotiations and with indigenous matters.  The trade agreement will include a chapter on the protection of foreign investment that may replace the Argentina – Canada BIT.

The negotiations are scheduled for this year and the next one and, if everything goes according to plan, the trade agreement could be signed in the last half of 2019 or in the first half of 2020. Political circumstances such as the next presidential election in Argentina would probably affect this estimate.