RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Southern Common Market (Mercosur), made up of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, on Thursday signed here a free trade agreement with Singapore, the first of its kind with a country in the Asia-Pacific region.
The signing, which took place during the bloc's 63rd summit of heads of state, "marks the renewed vigor of Mercosur's extra-regional trade negotiations agenda, 12 years after the bloc signed its last free trade agreement," Mercosur said in a statement.
The agreement with Singapore "opens up trade and investment opportunities, while safeguarding space for the formulation of public interest policies," the statement said.
Singapore is one of Mercosur's main export destinations and one of its main investment partners, with bilateral trade in 2022 totalling some 10 billion U.S. dollars, the bloc noted. ■
