Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou refrained from signing the final statement of the Mercosur trading bloc summit today. The other Mercosur leaders committed to not making bilateral agreements with the European Union (EU) as negotiations for a new trade deal between the two blocs continue.

“Uruguay has a view that President Lacalle has had for some time, which persists in the idea that Mercosur partners can negotiate autonomously with Mercosur, and he expressed that difference by not signing the [document],” Argentine President Alberto Fernández said in a press conference. “But it is a decision that we are aware of.”

The final document was signed by Fernández, as well as by the Brazilian and Paraguayan presidents Luiz Inácio “Lula” Da Silva and Mario Abdo Benítez.

“The presidents agreed upon the need to open a space for political reflection on the modernization of the bloc,” it said. “Including the strengthening of the internal agenda for greater integration of their economies, as well as the strategy for international insertion, on a consensual and solidary basis.”

That paragraph is what sparked Uruguay’s dissent, as Lacalle Pou demands to make the trading bloc’s founding statute more flexible so that each member country may individually negotiate trade agreements with other countries without other Mercosur members. For this reason, Lacalle Pou also refused to sign the final document of the previous Mercosur summit. 

Today, Fernández inaugurated the 62nd Mercosur summit in the Iguazú National Park, where passed the rotating presidency of the organization to Da Silva.

“No one can condemn us to only providing the raw materials that others use for products that they then sell back to us at outrageous prices,” he said.

There were also tensions during the summit surrounding the political situation in Venezuela regarding the ban of opposition leader María Corina Machado in the upcoming elections, with Uruguay calling for Mercosur’s involvement.

Bolivian President Luis Arce was acknowledged in the final document, with Mercosur looking to incorporate the country into the trading bloc.