The president of the Republic Luis Lacalle Pou discarded the idea raised weeks ago by the Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva of create one common currency among the countries that make up the mercosur.
“Common currency is not possible. it’s crazy“, stressed the Uruguayan president during an interview with the Argentine journalist Jonatan Viale of the La Nación channel.
Lacalle did leave open the possibility that the partners of the commercial bloc establish a “floatation band” for their currencies, in such a way as to avoid “jumps”. For example, said the president, what happens on the coast, where the price gap with Argentina is unfavorable for Uruguayanswho cross to the neighboring country to make cheaper purchases.
“We would be very calm if we put the floors and ceilings of our currencies. I would sleep much easier,” she said.
At the end of January, before visiting Montevideo, President Lula Da Silva met with his Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernández and mentioned the possibility of establishing a common currency in Mercosur.
“If it depended on me, I would always have foreign trade with the currencies of other countries so as not to depend on the dollar. I think that’s going to happen and I think it needs to happen.”said the Brazilian president at the press conference after the meeting.
“I think that everything new must be tested. God grant that our ministers of the economic area and the presidents of the central banks have the necessary intelligence and good sense so that Let’s take a leap in quality in our commercial and financial relations”, he added.
Agreements of Uruguay with Brazil
Lacalle Pou also referred to the recent visit of Uruguayan ministers to Brasiliawhere Uruguay made progress in important agreements, such as the conversion of the Rivera airport into a binational one, a bridge that will link Yaguarón and Río Branco, as well as a waterway that will link the Laguna Merín with that of Los Patos and that will allow Uruguayan cargo to leave to the Atlantic through the port of Rio Grande do Sul.
“They came with the signing of three enormous works for the region,” the president stressed in the interview. “We gain sovereignty if our products have cheaper freight,” said the president, who acknowledged that with President Lula he is not “very close” ideologically.
