Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay to organize new meeting to discuss tariffs and flexibility of Mercosur

Will they find a point of coincidence or at least will the positions be more harmonious? Will the capacity to conclude agreements be boosted? Will everything remain undefined? On Tuesday, June 8, at the beginning of the afternoon at the Palacio San Martín, seat of the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, another meeting of the foreign ministers of the four full member countries of Mercosur will be held, during a meeting in which the respective economy ministers will participate – with the exception of the Brazilian Paulo Guedes – which could be crucial for the future of the regional bloc.

If the number of pandemics in this part of South America improves in the coming days, everyone can see each other face to face. The two previous times, on March 26 to commemorate the first three decades of the creation of Mercosur and exactly one month later, they communicated by videoconference in which all parties They made explicit the differences which have persisted for a long time, in particular because of the antagonistic positions of the Argentine government, which enjoys the support of a Paraguayan conciliator, with its two other trading partners, Brazil and Uruguay.

The main points that will be debated again by the Common Market Council, made up of foreign ministers and heads of economic portfolios from each nation, are the reduction in tariffs and the flexibility of Mercosur. Argentina proposed a partial reduction of 10% of the common external tariff (the CET taxes products manufactured in countries outside the bloc) and the elimination of the tariff for nearly 3,000 products linked mainly to industrial inputs.. The biggest dissent is with Paulo Guedes, the Brazilian minister in charge of the economic portfolio, who proposes double the tariff reduction now. Guedes announced that he would not be coming to Buenos Aires and during the week he reiterated that they would not be “trapped in the region”. “It was a mistake, Mercosur imprisoned us,” he added.

Positions seem difficult to reconcile. Argentina’s Ambassador to Brazil Daniel Scioli is playing a leading role in trying to bring the two governments closer together. The former governor of Buenos Aires has held several meetings in recent days with three former presidents of the neighboring country who are clearly “Integrationists” like Lula Da Silva, Fernando Henrique Cardoso and José Sarney, and also established contacts with diplomats, chambers of commerce and lawmakers to convey to them the intentions of the Alberto Fernández government for the future of the bloc.

The three former Brazilian leaders are at odds with Guedes’ pragmatic and liberal ideas. Argentina, which holds the pro-tempore presidency of Mercosur until next month, wants the economic opening of Mercosur to be gradual and that is why would accept another 10% CET reduction in January 2022. On Thursday 3 June, the block coordinators will meet to finish adjusting the agenda which will be debated five days later.

A Sarney opinion column published yesterday on the Brazilian blog metropoles.com goes in the same vein of support for the common market. “Mercosur will never die. Brazil and Argentina, responsible for America’s greatest integration mission, will fulfill this destiny. One day, this will be fully realized and we will shout the great slogan: “Let us grow together” “reads the last paragraph of the text drafted by the politician who presided over Brazil during the creation of the common market in 1991 by the Treaty of ‘Asunción, with its impetus and the one of its Argentine counterpart, Raúl Alfonsín.

Differences also persist within the Brazilian government, as confirmed by a newspaper article published by the newspaper. O’globo Thursday 27. Foreign Minister Carlos França and Secretary for Strategic Affairs of Jair Bolsonaro’s government, Admiral Flavio Viana Rocha, have very good relations with Scioli and last Monday they discussed with the Argentinian Minister of Affairs foreigners, Felipe Solá, from the future Mercosur in Ecuador during the investiture of the new president of this country, Guillermo Lasso. The two, França and Viana Rocha, they aspire to an understanding which Guedes resists with the endorsement of Bolsonaro. The Brazilian head of state, on the other hand, looks with suspicion at the emotional proximity between Alberto Fernández and his rivals in domestic politics.

Guedes has repeatedly expressed that Argentina must abandon its “protectionist” stance. He and Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou and Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez believe it is necessary to “make Mercosur more flexible”. They want to conclude agreements individually with third countries without needing the unanimous approval of the other partners of the regional bloc. It is an economic equation – with geopolitical effects – which Alberto Fernandez does not accept at this historic stage due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Mercosur is a brand projected in the world in a joint and unitary way; The region has better negotiating possibilities and greater capacities to obtain advantages in the markets by appearing together at the negotiating tables ”, assured the secretary for international economic relations of our country, Jorge Neme, during the opening. of the VI Mercosur Business Forum, which brought together representatives of the public and private sectors to investigate and design strategies for the different productive sectors. Neme is one of the representatives of the Argentine Foreign Ministry who has worked most actively in recent months to bring positions within the bloc.

Neme also said that “the region needs a closer connection and relationship with markets and while we have an ambitious external relations agenda, there is a need to incorporate new regions and countries on the premise that we have to do it jointly, beyond the fact that in the negotiation process there may be changes of pace or flexibility depending on the sensitivity of each country ”.

Uruguay’s proposal to make Mercosur more flexible officially entered the bloc on Monday April 26. The announcement was made by the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry on social media, from where they assured that the proposal had “With the full support of Brazil.”

Uruguay’s proposal It was studied by the coordinators of the Common Market Group “in order to generate the contributions allowing decision-making at the next meeting of the Common Market Council”.

A few hours before the presentation of this proposal, the President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, recalled that “if all (the partners) do not agree, Mercosur does not move forward”, with reference to the proposal sent by your country to Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

During the virtual summit of the Presidents of Mercosur held on March 26, 30 years after its creation, there was a hard cross between Lacalle Pou and Alberto Fernández. The Uruguayan declared on this occasion that he was not satisfied with the current conditions in which the common market operates and said he was “frustrated” by the impossibility of concluding extra-regional agreements. His most powerful words were when he said that these limits represented “A slab” Yes “A corset” for the development of your country. Notably uncomfortable, the Argentinian head of state replied that Mercosur should not become “a burden or a burden on anyone” and invited those who felt dissatisfied to “Take another boat”. This episode seemed to fade over the days but it revealed the ridiculousness that coexists among its members.

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