After the CELAC summit, the international agenda of Lula da Silva continue this Wednesday with a visit to Uruguay. The highlight of his trip will be a closed-door meeting with Luis Lacalle Pou, in which the future of Mercosur and the the commercial future of the block is a key question following the proposals of the Uruguayan president at the summit held on Tuesday in Buenos Aires.
Lula and Lacalle Pou are expected to meet in the presidential residence, and then hold a press conference where they will report on the details of the issues discussed. After the presentation, both leaders will have lunch. In the afternoon, it is expected that Lula visits former Uruguayan President José “Pepe” Mujica’s farmin an attempt to give a boost to the local left.
“The visit will highlight the centrality attributed by Brazil to the relationship with Uruguay” and its “importance (…) within the project to strengthen Mercosur, one of the priorities of the new Brazilian government”, he said in a statement the Brazilian presidency.
Mercosur is going through a deep crisis amid Uruguay’s decision to negotiate a free trade agreement with China and to seek entry into the Trans-Pacific Agreement without the consent of its partners Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, who have warned that the block could collapse.
Among the pressures for his attempt to advance agreements with China, At the summit held on Tuesday, Lacalle Pou raised the creation of a regional free trade area.
“Isn’t it time to open these relations and for CELAC to promote a free trade area from Mexico to southern South America? Can’t we move forward in that direction?” asked the Uruguayan president.
“There we have the possibilities of free trade. Many of our economies are complementaryand I’m sure we could go on,” he concluded.
The debate on Mercosur and the Uruguayan proposal
The debate on the future of Mercosur was not lacking at the CELAC summit. At least in its public stance, Brazil expressed Tuesday in Buenos Aires that it considers it the regional block should remain as it is.
“We believe that Mercosur must be preserved,” stressed Celso Amorim, former foreign minister during Lula’s first presidencies and main adviser to the president, a day before the landing in Montevideo.
“Let’s talk. In the idea of conservation, it is the common external tariff. This is something that is not required by Brazil or Argentina, it is the first article of the Treaty of Asuncion,” Amorim said.
This article of the founding text of Mercosur establishes “the establishment of a common external tariff and the adoption of a common commercial policy vis-à-vis third States or groups of States, as well as the coordination of positions in regional or international economic and commercial forums” .
Uruguay believes that Argentina and Brazil have already adopted bilateral measures within the bloc, such as reductions in the Common External Tariff, and argues that other foundational postulates, such as form a customs union or a common markethave not been satisfied.
President Lacalle Pou recalled in a press conference in Buenos Aires that “the definition” of opening up his country’s trade to third parties was adopted in Uruguay several governments ago.
It has decided to advance a free trade agreement with China, which has publicly expressed its interest in negotiating with Uruguay. The two countries are moving forward in negotiations after conducting a feasibility study. The situation is tense in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, which have recovered threaten Montevideo with legal and commercial measures.
The tension within the block it is palpable.
On Monday, Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa, along with his Brazilian counterpart Fernando Haddad, said that “Uruguay is one of Mercosur’s younger brothers and Brazil and Argentina have a responsibility to take care of it like any younger brother.” “.
When asked about this statement, Lacalle Pou replied: “Looks like Disneyland”.
Upset at the government for the visit to Mujica?
Before his visit to the Mujica farm, Lula also plans to visit the mayor of Montevideo, Carolina Cosse, a leading figure in the opposition Frente Amplio (FA).
The left-wing coalition, in fact, has summoned its militants through its social media to go to the municipal esplanade to greet Lula “in defense of democracy and Latin American integration“.
the brazilian will receive a medal for his contribution to the environment by the hand of Gosse, in a public deed from a balcony of the Municipality, in the very central avenue 18 de Julio.
Visit to “Pepper”
Eventually, in the company of his wife Rosangela, he will make his last stop before returning to Brazil at the Mujica farm, in Rincón del Cerro, a rural area west of Montevideo. The president of the Fronte Largo, Fernando Pereira, could participate in the meeting.
The appointments with the contacts of the Frente Amplista have generated unease in some members of the government, as they are seen as a strong opposition support in a pre-election year.
“It represents an act of domestic politics by establishing a clear preference on a certain political party in the country,” former president Julio María Sanguinetti (1985-1990, 1995-2000) said in statements to the local newspaper Village.
Sanguinetti was part of the Uruguayan entourage at Lula’s inauguration in Brasilia on January 1, together with Lacalle and Mujica, in a gesture of republican coexistence much praised both in the country and abroad.
Source: AFP
Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.