Mauricio Macri will receive Evo Morales while preparing a reform to soften Mercosur

As acting president of Mercosur, Mauricio Macri will present at the next Summit of State Heads to be held in Santa Fe in July, an in-depth reform of the regional bloc including tariff changes, negotiation mechanisms with other economic blocs and a reformulation into depth of the structure. so that there is "less bureaucracy and more dynamism".

This is what Macri himself proposed to his partners Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay, with whom he had reserved talks on the subject and hopes to meet in Argentina in the idea of ​​clarifying all these proposals for Mercosur. The President will also address the issue today at noon at Casa Rosada with his Bolivian counterpart. Evo Morales, it is in Argentina and of which the country will be a full member of the bloc. While Morales will come to the meeting with Macri with an extensive program that covers gas deals, border security, the Venezuelan issue and trade agreements, the need for Argentina to streamline the mechanisms of the country. Agreement will also be discussed. Mercosur

Chancellor Jorge Faurie explained ten days ago in Santa Fe that Argentina exercised during this semester 2019 the interim presidency of the bloc. "in a context of challenges, but also of opportunities, which must always be articulated with the permanent search for concrete results for our citizens".

In practice, those close to the head of Palacio San Martín pointed out that Macri's idea was to strongly rethink the regional block for three concrete axes of fundamental reforms very concrete for Mercosur:

1. Additional block rates

Macri has already agreed with its Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro to implement a system to reduce tariffs on additional Mercosur products in order to reduce costs and make the local block industry more competitive for its global trade .

In this sense, the Foreign Ministries of Brazil and Argentina are already working in a system of opening at the reduced rate of more than 100 imported products for local production to be more profitable and competitive than other economic blocks. We are thinking mainly of products related to industrial and agricultural machinery that Mercosur imports today at very high prices.

"We are not going to invade Mercosur with imported products, but we will try to redefine the pricing policy just to make a block that needs it more competitive," he added. Infobae a government official who prepares the agenda for the Mercosur summit in July.

2. Flexibility of negotiations

Macri and Bolsonaro and even the Paraguayan President Abdo Benitez agree on the need to "flexibilize" the unilateral negotiations of possible trade agreements of countries so that they are not tied to a higher agreement of the country. Whole block.

Mercosur is currently negotiating free trade agreements with the European Union, but also with Canada, the EFTA countries, Singapore, Korea and Japan.

However, this does not mean that some of the Mercosur Group partners can unilaterally negotiate trade agreements with other countries. Until now, this was an obstacle that complicated the development of partner country agreements and constituted a permanent complaint by the Foreign Ministries of Brazil and Argentina.

In this perspective, Faurie explained to present in Santa Fe what will be the summit of the bloc "that it is imperative to give more dynamism to Mercosur" and that "the work for insertion in the world with our partners must have a northern economic and social development ". "It's what our people are asking us for," he said.

3. Elimination of bureaucracy

Macri is convinced that to make Mercosur more dynamic, it will be necessary to eliminate the bureaucracy that has prevailed for several years, to eliminate the "old and useless structures", as it is said at Casa Rosada, and to make the regional block a more agile and accessible work system. for entrepreneurs

The Argentine government officials working on these proposals to present at the Mercosur summit are already considering deleting several secretariats or under-secretariats that the bloc has and working sporadically. These structures involve a monetary cost for each country in order to maintain employees and civil servants.

"The abolition of commissions and secretaries will be proposed directly to make the block a more simplified and less expensive system," he admitted. Infobae a Chancery official.

At the same time, Macri believes that the meetings of the presidents of the bloc should be annual or biennial, and not semiannual, as it is currently the case.

Added to this is Macri's request, which, less than two weeks ago, urged Congress "repeal the law" which renews the Argentine representatives in the Mercosur Parliament for "unnecessary expenses" that it generates, and asked that the body be represented by national deputies and senators.

"It costs a fortune to maintain unnecessary spending that means generating a new body of representatives in Parliament at each election," badured the head of state via social networks. "I ask the National Congress to repeal the law that requires this renewal and that the same deputies and senators who represent us already do so in Parliament like Brazil and Uruguay."

Macri's intention is also to strengthen Mercosur in its strategy of approach with the Pacific Alliance which include Chile, Mexico, Colombia and Peru. The Argentinian President is convinced that the unification of the Mercosur-Pacific Alliance agreements will facilitate the entry of regional bloc products into the Asian market.

Apparently, members of the Mercosur bloc are in agreement with all the initiatives that Macri will promote during the meeting of state leaders in Santa Fe in July. In the same spirit, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay have decided to a lesser extent to leave, this bloc created under the heat of Chavism and Kirchnerism 15 years ago.