The LX Ordinary Meeting of the Council of the Common Market of the South and Summit of Heads of State of Mercosur and Associated States, took place in our country between Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21. The pro tempore presidency now passed to Uruguay, which will have it until the end of the of year.
This Summit was passed unnoticed by countries like Brazil and Argentina, reversed in presidential elections and economic crises respectively. Therefore, the true usefulness of the block was raised.
Fernando Masi, an economist, pointed out that it is not true that Mercosur is a failure since it opened many markets and economic and business complements.
“Complementations of other types such as social security, in the employment area, progress was even made in the creation of merco-cities, which are cities that exchange experiences. There are around 200 municipalities created in Mercosur. There are a number of benefits as well such as the union of culture,” she explained.
He pointed out that Mercosur is stuck in its internal agenda. And that in order to solve it, it must be analyzed if the goal of the Common Market is to be reached as originally thought. Or they will stay in a free trade area with a set of rules and trade from there.
“This is the debate that has to be done internally in Mercosur. Any integration process can set a goal that can be at any stage. The Mercosur set itself a goal of the Common Market. Now the integration processes do not necessarily have to point to a common market. You can stay in a customs union. Or you can stay in a free trade zone,” he stated.
He affirmed that it is very easy to speak of the failure of Mercosur when the main economies do not have the dynamics that they previously had. But this does not mean that this dynamic will not return.
“Mercosur has not been a failure. Even when compared to other integration processes within Latin America, or those that are currently in place such as the Andean Community of Nations, Mercosur has achieved much more, thanks to the bloc, in the 1990s other integration processes were reactivated. It has an important asset, it is undoubtedly stagnant, but it must be reconsidered in what stage of integration it wants to continue operating.
Finally, he stated that Paraguay’s foreign trade reflects that Mercosur is the main destination for our exports.
“It constitutes 30 to 35% of the destination of our exports. If we add to that what we sell to Brazil, then we increase our dependence even more”, he concluded.
