A free trade agreement between Uruguay y China would destroy the Mercosurfor contradicting the bloc’s integration policies, said the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Mauro Vieira, in an interview published this Sunday in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper.
Vieira alluded to the announcement in July by the Uruguayan government that it had taken the first steps to negotiate a bilateral treaty with the Asian giant, which generated discrepancies with the Mercosur partners.
“If it is negotiated outside the Common External Tariff, it destroys the tariff. Destroying Mercosur is in no one’s interest,” the foreign minister told the newspaper.
“If they negotiate with different, lower rates, what is cheaper in that country will circulate in the others, due to the free movement (of goods),” said the foreign minister, opposing the bloc’s proposals to make it more flexible.
The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvawill visit Uruguay on Wednesday, in his first international tour that begins this Sunday with a visit to Argentina, where the seventh summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is also held on Tuesday.
Lula will leave for Buenos Aires at 6:00 p.m. local time in search of restoring regional leadership to Brazil and strengthening South American integration mechanisms, such as Mercosur, after the management of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro.
The bloc, founded in 1991, is going through a crisis, amid tensions between the partners and initiatives for flexibility, supported by Bolsonaro.
“Mercosur is not the same as when it was created. We have to see the needs of each one and the asymmetries that exist, and see if some kind of concession can be made,” the Brazilian minister told Folha.
For example, the Common External Tariff (AEC) to which Vieira referred has had multiple exceptions, such as those applied unilaterally by Argentina and Brazil.
“We must talk with Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay about the present and future of Mercosur (…) and make the necessary adjustments in dialogue with the businessmen of our countries,” Vieira told the Argentine news agency Télam on Saturday.
The strong differences within the bloc were evident at the last Mercosur summit, held in December in Montevideo.
In particular, the partners reproached the Uruguayan government for launching negotiations with China without its consent, as required by the group’s regulations.
On the other hand, Vieira referred to the agreement that Mercosur has been seeking to conclude with the European Union for more than two decades: “We are carrying out internal analyzes (…) and with the Mercosur countries, and then resume talks with the Union European Union. If the analysis is positive, we will move forward.”
Lula has said the agreement is not valid and that he hopes to discuss a version that respects “Brazil’s wishes” and that does not force him to renounce “reindustrialization.”
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