Mercosur Summit ends with a unified claim for Uruguay

Today Mercosur is too protectionist and we must resolve the tensions within and without. We are not willing to sit still. He who stands still loses.”

Luis Lacalle Pou, President of Uruguay

In the midst of a climate of strong tension in Mercosur, the presidents of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil called on Uruguay to respect the bloc’s internal rules and avoid advancing with unilateral free trade agreements, since this strategy, they warned, would put in a situation of rupture of the regional association.

During the opening of the summit of Mercosur presidents that is taking place in Montevideo, President Alberto Fernández stressed that “the solution is not for each one to do their own, I don’t think it is the mechanism”, in a direct reference to his counterpart Luis Lacalle Pou who is unilaterally negotiating a free trade agreement with China.

The call for unity and compliance with the internal rules that Argentina requested from Uruguay was also heard from the President of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez and the Vice President of Brazil, Hamilton Mourao.

The proposals of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil came in the middle of a previous letter that these countries had sent to Uruguay.

In this context, Alberto Fernández, who assumed the pro tempore presidency of Mercosur for the next six months, highlighted in the open session in Montevideo that “unilateral actions worry us”, in reference to the attempts of the Government of Uruguay to establish agreements of free trade with other blocks.

Thus, the president of Argentina admitted that the problems of asymmetries must be resolved in Mercosur, but above all he established that “the unity of this bloc must be strengthened,” he said. “The Mercosur rules must be complied with,” Alberto Fernández declared in a direct message to the unilateral scheme of Uruguay.

For his part, Lacalle Pou clarified that his administration does not have “a disruptive vision” of the bloc, although he urged it to open up to the world and warned that “it cannot be 16 years to close an agreement”, in relation to the agreements sealed with the Union European.

“Today the bloc is too protectionist and we must resolve the tensions within and without,” said Lacalle Pou, defending his proposal that he extended to China to advance with a free trade agreement.

And in a clear response to Alberto Fernández, the president of Uruguay highlighted in a soccer tone: “I would like to see the VAR of Mercosur to see who complied with the rules in Mercosur,” he warned.

For his part, the vice president of Brazil also aligned himself with Argentina’s proposal, although Alberto Fernández and Jair Bolsonaro do not share their political ideas.

“We are willing to discuss from Brazil to the different instances of association always within the common rules for all,” said Mourao. From this instance, Brazil warned that the integration problems of the regional bloc “derive from individual decisions.” Thus, he called for “strengthening the dialogue and consensus among the bloc.”

In his turn, Abdo Benítez highlighted Paraguay’s position of summoning Uruguay to comply with the rules by arguing that “today we must strengthen this integration process.”