The chancellor santiago cafiero participate this Wednesday in Paraguay of the LX Ordinary Meeting of the Council of the Mercosur Common Marketa preparatory instance that will define the issues that will be analyzed and debated the following day at the Summit of Heads of State of the regional bloc, which will be attended by President Alberto Fernández.
Cafiero arrives this Wednesday at Assumption together with the national coordinator of the Council of the Common Market and secretary of International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cecilia Todesca Boccoas an advance party for the delegation that will be together with Fernández at the meeting of presidents, which will take place on Thursday at the Conmebol (South American Football Confederation) Convention Center, in the city of Luque, some 10 kilometers from the Paraguayan capital.
In the morning, from 10 o’clock, and accompanied by Todesca Bocco, the foreign minister will talk with his peers from the member states of the regional bloc, within the framework of the LX Ordinary Meeting of the Mercosur Common Market Council (CMC)which will be headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay, Ambassador Julio Cesar Arriola Ramirezsources from the San Martín Palace informed Télam.
This meeting will have two sessions; In the first place, in the morning it will be with the Mercosur States Parties, and in the afternoon, the second session of the Ordinary Meeting of the CMC, which will be chaired again by Ambassador Arriola and will be attended by the National Coordinators of the Group Common Market (GMC), the National Coordinators of the Forum for Consultations and Political Coordination (FCCP) of Mercosur and Associated States, technical committees and special guests.
There, the Argentine foreign minister will be accompanied by the national coordinator of the bloc’s Political Consultation and Coordination Forum and undersecretary for Latin American and Caribbean Affairs, Gustavo Martinez Pandiani.
The Argentine delegation also includes the Argentine ambassador in Paraguay, Sunday Peppoand the Undersecretary of Mercosur and International Economic Negotiations, Rossana Surballe.
According to diplomatic sources, during the meetings with his peers and other ministers from the region, Cafiero will explain Argentina’s position on “the bloc’s current situation, its specific progress and pending issues,” in addition to the issues that the administration of Alberto Fernandez considers “urgent” in an international scenario crossed by the consequences of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
The agenda ends on Thursday 21, with the Plenary Session of the presidents of the Mercosur States, Associated States and special guests, on which occasion the Report of the Pro Tempore Presidency will be presented and during which the declarations and joint communiqués of the bloc will be approved. .
Currently, the pro tempore presidency is exercised by Paraguay, a country that at the end of the meeting will make the official transfer to the Eastern Republic of Uruguay.
Topics to talk about
The sixtieth Mercosur summit will address a series of economic issues, among which the analysis of Brazil’s tariff policy stands out, which in May ordered a unilateral reduction in its tariffs, the possibility of a “state-of-the-art” trade agreement with Singapore and monitoring of the treaty signed in 2019 with the European Union.
The meeting of heads of state –the first face-to-face after the virtuality imposed by the pandemic of coronavirus that began in March 2020- has the confirmed presence of three of the four presidents of the countries that make up the bloc: Fernández; the host, Mario Abdo Benítez, and the Uruguayan, Luis Lacalle Pou.
After comings and goings about his presence at the summit, the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaroannounced on Monday that he would not attend the meeting due to problems that he must resolve in his country, according to the news network CNN Brasil.
However, Brazil will be represented by its Ministers of Economy, Paulo Guedes, and Foreign Relations, Charles Albert Francawho will defend before their peers from Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay one of the most controversial aspects within the bloc, such as the unilateral reduction of 10 percentage points of the CET (Common External Tariff).
The chancellor Arriola Ramirez He pointed out in statements to the Asunceño newspaper ABC that they are “finalizing logistical, technical and documentation details” before the imminence of the meeting.
Arriola Ramírez also said that progress will be analyzed in the agreement that the bloc signed with the European Union and that negotiations for a “state-of-the-art free trade agreement” between Mercosur and Singaporewhich will allow “expanding the commercial horizon with Southeast Asia”.
In 2021, the bloc’s exports to that Singapore reached 5,929 million dollars, while imports totaled 1,252 million, according to Mercosur data.
In the last week, the preparations for the summit felt the impact of the recent announcement made by the Uruguayan president, Luis Lacalle Pou, who announced progress in the negotiations for an FTA with Beijing, contravening the statutes of Mercosur.
In this regard, Argentina maintains that Montevideo, in fact, advanced in a preliminary feasibility study that must then be discussed and internalized by all the member countries.
The Uruguayan decision generates divergences within the bloc and presidents Fernández and Lacalle have starred in discursive crosses in previous bloc meetings.
The Argentine Foreign Ministry warned that Lacalle Pou’s strategy does not respect the regulations of the regional blocto the point that Decision 32 of July 29, 2000 taken by the Common Market Council reaffirmed “the commitment of the States Parties to Mercosur to jointly negotiate agreements of a commercial nature with third countries or groups of countries outside the zone in which tariff preferences are granted.
But on this occasion, Paraguayan remarks were added to the Argentine claims: Arriola pointed out that “joint progress must be made towards prioritizing the agenda of external negotiations, as established in the founding texts of Mercosur.”
Fernández had expressed himself in the same vein at the virtual summit in July last year, when he pointed out that “no one is saved alone”and called to respect the joint decisions of the bloc.
All in all, Lacalle Pou said last Monday in a public act that “The idea is to advance together” because “Mercosur has much more negotiating power than Uruguay alone”, but maintains his country’s decision to negotiate unilaterally with Beijing.
Days ago, Bolsonaro described as a “problem” for Mercosur that Uruguay intends to unilaterally negotiate a free trade agreement with China, contrary to the bloc’s regulations.
“This Mercosur issue is always unstable, it has its pros and cons. At this moment, Uruguay wants to buy everything that comes from China directly, regardless of the Mercosur barrier clause. It is a problem that we are facing,” Bolsonaro told Radio Sarandí from the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.
However, from the San Martín Palace they were optimistic about the results that the conclave could have and ratified that “for Argentina, Mercosur is the main instrument of international economic insertion and constitutes a true State policy.”
