The call for this Wednesday at 15:00 local time takes place for the fourth time in less than three months.
On the three occasions that the draft legislation was scheduled (March 26, April 3 and May 2) it was not considered due to the rejection of the legislators who demanded to debate first the proposed regulations 073 and 075 to terminate the Plurinational Constitutional Court (TCP) and the Court of Justice, self-extended in 2023.
Their constitutional mandate was due to expire on December 31 of that year.
Bill 225/2023-2024 ‘of ratification of the Protocol of Accession of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to Mercosur’ is listed as the second item on the agenda of this Wednesday’s session, while the first will be correspondence.
If approved, it must pass to the Chamber of Senators for its review and subsequent approval, and then to the Executive Branch for its enactment.
Once this procedure has been completed, the national government must formalize the Deposit of the Instrument of Ratification of the Protocol of Accession of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to Mercosur at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay.
From that moment on, the country will have a four-year period to adopt the entire normative baggage of the bloc and consolidate reciprocal free trade with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Bolivian Foreign Ministry sources explained that there is no deadline to complete the procedure in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly.
However, the Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Integration, Huáscar Ajata, warned that every day that passes without the ratification of the document, businessmen stop taking advantage of market opportunities and Bolivian migrants stop benefiting from the bloc’s migratory status.
Besides the two aforementioned points, the Chamber of Deputies scheduled the treatment of a bill that approves the transfer of land owned by the Municipal Autonomous Government of Quime in favor of the Departmental Autonomous Government of La Paz, exclusively for the construction of the Apostle Santiago de Quime Technological Institute Project.
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