2023-07-04 08:30:00
With the Iguazú Falls in the background, the presidents that are part of Mercosur will meet once more in person following four years. They arrive at the 62nd plenary session of heads of state in Misiones with the need to advance in the agreement with the European Unionbut also with the discussion opened by the easing of the block rules.
Alberto Fernandez will arrive at 10 in the morning this Tuesday in Misiones, a place where in 1985 the then presidents Raúl Alfonsín and José Sarney began to shape the Mercosur finally created in 1991. The appointment will be at the Meliá Hotel inside the Argentine Iguazú National Park in where the full members of the bloc will be present: the Brazilian Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvathe Uruguayan Luis Lacalle Pou and the Paraguayan Mario Abdo Benitezwho will be accompanied by the president-elect santiago pena. will also attend Luis ArceHead of State of Bolivia, a country in the process of full accession.
The deliberations will be chaired by the Argentine president, who will hand over the bloc’s Presidency to Lula da Silva. Before this, Fernández will take stock of the block’s activity during the first half of this year.
The Mercosur’s flexibility will put it on the agenda Uruguay. Lacalle Pou used the summit for the 30 years of the Mercosur agreement (in March 2021) to say that the “cannot be a ballast” block. “We are not willing to make it a corset in which our country cannot move,” he said in the virtual meeting in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Fernández responded right there: “We don’t want to be anyone’s burden; if we are a drag, let them take another boat”.
A year later, the head of state of Uruguay announced that his country would start talks with China and would not stand still although the objective was to negotiate together as part of Mercosur. This negotiation cooled down but Lacalle Pou met with his Brazilian counterpart, who said that easing is a “more than fair” approach.
However, Lula made it clear that the first thing the bloc must do is speed up the agreement with the European Union. This agreement signed in 2019 has not yet come to fruition. Argentina and Brazil demand modifications while Europe calls for a “green commitment”. These measures to take care of the environment would have no other objective than to exercise the protectionism demanded by agricultural producers.
But the war in Ukraine and China’s advance in the region mean that the European Union wants to progress, especially in energy agreements. The focus is on the summit between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the EU at the end of July in Brussels. By then, the presidents of the blocks will be Brazil and Spain, two countries that are interested in signing it.
The preview of foreign ministers and the participation of Massa
On Monday, the chancellor santiago cafiero kicked off the 62 meeting with their peers in the region. The official explained that the “new conditions” in environmental matters make compliance difficult and that “Europe asks us for changes, but does not tell us how we are going to implement them”. In addition, he spoke of the asymmetries of the blocks when detailing that “the deepening of the link between Mercosur and the EU is a necessary political signal, in an international context of growing conflict and uncertainty. The agreement can be an effective vehicle for our bloc to strengthen its participation in the rearrangement of the global map of production and work. It is a discussion of geopolitical autonomy.”
On Mercosur, the official insisted: “In this time of uncertainty, we have to strengthen the bloc to narrow the development gaps. Cafiero was accompanied by the Secretary of International Economic Relations, Cecilia Todesca Boccoand the Undersecretary of Affairs for Latin America, Gustavo Martinez Pandiani.
Santiago Cafiero together with Mauro Viera, chancellor of Brazil who will receive the presidency of Mercosur.
For his part, the chancellor of Uruguay, Francisco Bustillo He made his presentation in tune with the critical tone that his President has been taking. On the role of the regional bloc, he shot: “From the first day we warned that the immobility had won Mercosur. We do not have agreements with any of the main economic and commercial powers in the world, and we do not have tangible progress with Asia, which is the most dynamic region in economic terms”. On the agreement with the EU, he shot that “at the end of this Presidency, we verified that we have not made any progress in the negotiation.”
Hours later, it was the turn of the finance ministers. Sergio Massa He spoke of the need to “coordinate the use of local currencies in the bloc’s trade.” The official and candidate for President took advantage of his time in Misiones to keep the campaign agenda active. At night, the Unión por la Patria candidate participated in a meeting in which 78 mayors of Misiones supported his candidacy. The outgoing governor also participated in the rally Oscar Herrera Ahuad and the incoming provincial president, Hugo Passalacqua. The referents of the Concord Renovation Front will bet on his presidential candidacy and on Monday night they made it clear.
Massa in Misiones received the support of 78 mayors.
Massa decided to stay one more day in Misiones and this Tuesday he will be present when the Summit of Presidents takes place. As a presidential candidate He will seek to take an image that adds to the campaign, such as a greeting with Lula.
The balance that Alberto Fernández will make
The head of state will detail how trade between Mercosur countries exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 38% since it went from US$33,000 million in 2019 to US$46,000 million in 2022, reaching the highest level since 2014.
According to the data provided by the agent, the fastest growing products were vehicles and chemical products. And they detail: “Mercosur trade shows significant growth since its creation in 1991 and has gained relevance as a destination for the bloc’s industrial exports. Nearly 60% of the intra-zone Mercosur exports of goods are concentrated in industrial manufactures, mainly in medium-technology sectors, such as the automotive, metal-mechanic and chemical sectors, followed by agribusiness and fuels”.
They also explain: “In 2022, Mercosur’s total trade in goods with the rest of the world registered a total of US$ 752.6 billion, reaching the highest historical value of the bloc. Mercosur’s exports to the rest of the world are concentrated in agricultural commodities and food products, minerals and fuels. All of them had very favorable international price dynamics in 2021 and 2022, during the pandemic exit process and mainly due to the effects of the war between Russia and Ukraine.”
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