Both the United States and Uruguay hope to achieve a positive result and come up with key global trade deals through a series of economic talks, which they recently started. In fact, US and Uruguayan officials already completed the initial round of negotiations last Tuesday amidst protests from the leftist coalition supporting President Tabare Vazquez. According to reports, a crowd of protesters gathered near the official residence of the president where the US and Uruguayan officials attended a press conference. The anti-American group shouted slogans, which condemned Uruguay's global trade negotiations with the US. Moreover, the protesters had burned the US flag and had thrown eggs at the presidential guards before they dispersed.



Everett Eissenstat, the assistant US Trade Representative for the Americas and the chief of the US delegation to Uruguay, told reporters that he expected an outline of investment and trade deal to be reached by the two parties in the soonest time possible. At the end of the global trade talks, which began last Monday, Mr. Eissenstat said that he believed that both parties were heading towards a good direction.

Meanwhile, Gonzalo Fernandez stated that Uruguay was also committed to arriving at a global trade deal with the United States. Both parties though did not give a specific date for the completion of the negotiations. It must be noted that Uruguay belongs to the group of Latin American nations with smaller economies. In fact, Uruguay has just started to recover from an economic decline, which took place in 2002 due to recessions from the part of Argentina and Brazil.

The US-Uruguay global trade negotiations though has resulted in a division in the coalition supporting Mr.Vazquez. Communists and some left-wing parties in the coalition have accused the Uruguayan leader of attempting to cede the nation's sovereignty to the US in order to secure an economic agreement. Needless to say, the government has denied the accusations and has argued instead that Uruguay needed to boost its trade ties with the United States and strike new deals in order to ensure a long-term economic development.

Mr. Vazquez is the first ever leftist president elected in Uruguay. Although the leader is keen to improve his country's economic relationship with the US, he made it clear that he was not seeking for an immediate free trade agreement (FTA) at the moment. Meanwhile, Former Uruguayan leader Jorge Batle was disappointed by the fact that Mr. Vazquez had no intention as of now to seek an FTA with the US. It must be noted that Mr. Batle spent years during his administration trying to improve the economic and global trade relationship between his country and the US.

The second round of global trade talks between the two countries would be held in the US. During the next meeting, both parties are expected to focus their discussion on important issues like government purchasing, intellectual rights properties, services, and goods. During the recent years, global trade between the US and Uruguay has significantly improved. Last year, Uruguay's exports to the US reached $767 million, while US exports to the Latin American country amounted to $259 million.