Deputy Foreign Minister Valeria Csukasi discussed progress in Vietnam and Indonesia, including a possible visit by Vietnam’s vice president to Uruguay before year-end and a sanitary process in Indonesia that faces a structural obstacle: the country has still not authorized private imports from countries that are free of foot-and-mouth disease with vaccination.
In an interview with Oriental Agropecuaria, Csukasi discussed the first results of the tour being carried out by the Uruguayan delegation — which also includes the Deputy Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries and the president of INAC — in Vietnam and Indonesia.
In Vietnam, she said, the agenda was “very intense,” with meetings with the foreign minister, the deputy minister of Industry and Trade and the deputy minister of Agriculture, as well as contacts with the private sector. “The main issue, and the big one that remains on our agenda, is beef market access,” she said, adding that they also discussed a possible visit by Vietnam’s vice president to Uruguay before the end of the year.
Regarding the sanitary process in Vietnam, Csukasi explained that the request for an inspection had stalled last year and that, following a request for review submitted by Uruguay in mid-2025, Vietnamese authorities sent a new set of questions in January, which Uruguay answered in June. The next step, she said, is to complete the documentary stage in order to move forward with on-site inspections of the plants seeking approval.
On tariffs, she stressed that Vietnam has no beef quotas, but does apply tariffs that put Uruguay at a disadvantage compared with competitors such as Australia, making Uruguay’s potential accession to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) particularly relevant.
In Indonesia, the situation is different: the country has no precedent for authorizing private beef imports from a country that is free of foot-and-mouth disease with vaccination, as is the case with Uruguay, while Brazil and Argentina have already been approved under a regionalization system.
“It means they would have to move away from the way they currently classify countries,” Csukasi explained, stressing that the process is still at the stage of providing explanations and exchanging information.
Regarding Thailand, the third destination that had been considered for the tour, she said it was ultimately left off the agenda due to lack of time, although the country remains on the radar because of private-sector interest despite its high tariffs.
