Buenos Aires: Argentine President Alberto Fernández will host today the Summit of Heads of State of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), in which he will pass the baton to Brazil for the next six months, Prensa Latina publishes.
With a block marked by profound differences between several founding countries, Fernández will preside from the Casa Rosada Bicentennial Museum the virtual appointment, which will be attended by the leaders of Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay and several special guests.
30 years after its creation and in the midst of a Covid-19 that has particularly hit several of these nations, issues such as tariffs and agreements with third countries have found cracks within the alliance while Argentina in these six months of the pro tempore presidency has played an important role with calls for integration.
With antagonistic glances between Fernández and Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil will be in charge of taking the reins of Mercosur for the next semester in a scenario that is looming even more complex and with greater tension within the bloc.
Precisely the day before, the Government of Uruguay announced that it will negotiate trade agreements outside the Mercosur structure, a decision that it announced while the foreign ministers of the bloc’s partner countries tried unsuccessfully to reach agreements on the reduction of the Common External Tariff.
In a virtual meeting with the presence of Bolivia, Argentine Foreign Minister Felipe Solá said yesterday that Argentina is convinced that without a doubt Mercosur is the main platform from which to advance towards insertion in world trade and that its consolidation and joint action are keys to a profitable insertion.
When taking stock of the management, the head of Argentine diplomacy indicated that during this last semester the revision of the Common External Tariff, an important tool of the common and foreign trade policy, was discussed in a very exhaustive manner.
During this time Argentina worked to put in a greater unity, something that will hang by a thread when Mercosur falls into the hands of Bolsonaro, according to analysts.
There are many pending issues, including the legal review of the agreements announced with the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association, as well as ongoing negotiations with Canada, South Korea, Singapore and Lebanon.
Working on differences and prioritizing the consensus that Mercosur is the best platform to promote an opening abroad will be among the bloc’s challenges in the next six months.s