The Brazilian foreign minister told the Mercosur Common Market Council that his country is willing to make the bloc more “flexible,” which will allow it to become more integrated into world markets.
We are willing to discuss with our partners, in the appropriate bodies of the block, flexible formats and mechanisms that meet the specificities of our countries, preserving the central elements of our integration process”, said Carlos França, during the meeting that takes place . place, held in the Paraguayan city of Luque.
adstatement seemed to be a nod to Uruguayi, which requires precisely this flexibility to support its decision to go it alone in the negotiations of a trade agreement with China, which it has already begun despite the fact that the current rules of the bloc prevent it from doing so.
According to Carlos França, the “intensification of Mercosur’s external relations”, which he believes has increased with the conclusion of a trade agreement with Singapore and other ongoing negotiations, “refers to the important issue of how quickly to move towards greater integration with the world”.
The central objective remains to push forward the bloc’s modernization on several fronts,” he said.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, although he did not explain why, will not be present at the summit.
Carlos França did not allude to this absence, but insisted more than once on the “importance” for Brazil of the bloc of which it is a part along with Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Mercosur is a force that has promoted the consolidation of peace and democracy in the region” and “this is not a small thing, because there are few regions on the planet free of conflicts”, declared the minister, who highlighted the potential for the production of food and energy. of the four member countries.
France also encouraged Mercosur partners to “strengthen regional production chains in an environment of destabilization of global chains, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine.”
In this sense, he welcomed the consensus to reduce the Mercosur common external tariff by 10%, a decision that, in his opinion, will be “essential for a greater insertion of the bloc in global value chains” and “will increase the supply of goods to the population” at a “moment of international inflationary pressure”.
Source: Observadora
