Buenos Aires (VNA)𒅌 – Representatives from the Vietnamese Embassy in Argentina on April 15 participated in a round of talks between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) with the aim to boost the two blocs’ trade.

The event was held by the Federation of Medium Enterprises in Argentina (CAME) and the Mercosur-ASEAN Chamber of Commerce in Tucuman province, Argentina . At the event, Vietnamese Commercial Attaché in Argentina Nguyen Thi Thanh Van along with representatives from Indonesia and the Philippines discussed with Argentine and Uruguayan businesses on trade and investment opportunities. The Vietnamese representative briefed participants on Vietnam ’s active role in ASEAN as well as informed them of the country’s 6.7 percent average growth rate over more than two decades. Meanwhile, Argentine and Uruguayan businessmen showed their interests in knowing about the laws for foreign investment in Vietnam . They also expressed wishes to import coffee, rubber, tires, motorbikes, bicycles, and wooden products from Vietnam as well as shipping wine, beef, flour, juices, and cattle breeding products to the Asian country. Argentina is one of the three Latin American countries (together with Mexico and Brazil ) whose trade value with Vietnam exceeds 1 billion USD. In 2015, two-way trade hit more than 2.5 billion USD, up 34 percent from 2014. In the first quarter of this year, Vietnam ’s export turnover to Argentina reached 220 million USD, an increase of 134 percent from the same period last year. Meanwhile, bilateral trade between Vietnam and Uruguay was 124 million USD in 2014, of which Vietnam ’s exports were valued at 41 million USD. Created in 1991, Mercosur is a sub-regional bloc grouping Brazil , Argentina , Uruguay , Venezuela and Paraguay . Mercosur is currently the fifth world economic power with a GDP of 3.3 trillion USD and represents 83 percent of total GDP in South America . The bloc’s internal trade reaches 62 billion USD annually. Meanwhile, ASEAN, established in 1967, consists of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei , Cambodia , Laos , Myanmar , Singapore , Thailand , the Philippines and Vietnam.-VNA