Mujica forecasts Venezuela will rapidly become Uruguay’s third trade partner
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica strongly defended the incorporation of Venezuela to Mercosur and forecasted that in a short time the country will become Uruguay’s third trade associate, behind China and Brazil.
Although underlining the importance of Argentina for the Uruguayan economy overall, Mujica said that it is inevitable that it will displaced by Venezuela.
“Our third trade partner will be Venezuela, you can bet on that, because of its purchasing power and because history tells us we must move that way” insisted the Uruguayan leader.
Speaking in his daily broadcast Mujica said Venezuela will join Mercosur next 31 July despite the controversial procedure for its incorporation (with the absence of suspended Paraguay): “let’s be clear, I have no doubts because there are no juridical irregularities”.
Mujica went on to say that since 2001 and despite all difficulties “trade with Venezuela has expanded annually at over 30%. There is no other country in our region with which we complement so well” and added “let us not forget we sell them beef dearer than to Europe”.
“Is not that Venezuela is joining Mercosur: it’s Mercosur that is joining Venezuela, or don’t we realize that Venezuela is a strategic country for Latinamerica? Forget about Chavez, time takes care of political leaders and regimes, but countries remain”.
He went on to say that 20% of the oil Uruguay imports comes from Venezuela, “can we be so short sighted in today’s world as to ignore this emporium of energy just round the corner?
Mujica recalled when he was Minister of Agriculture and met with German politicians: “would they accept Russia into the European Union if they came knocking on the door? Of course because the country is rich in oil, gas and grains”.
“I insist Venezuela will become crucial in the mid and long term for Uruguay’s trade” and that country is also a gateway to the Caribbean. “There are some products such as apples and broilers we can only sell to Venezuela”.
Finally regarding the standing Paraguayan position contrary to Venezuela’s full membership, Mujica anticipated “they are going to love it more than us because they need them more than us, it’s a question of trade interests”.
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16 comments Feed
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What happened to democracy? has Mercosur become a pragmatic bloc solely based on economic opportunities? what about the people of Venezuela who has lost economic freedoms at the expenses of Chavez's socialist revolution?
What if Chavez remains in power for another ten years? will it be acceptable for a trade bloc to have dictators in their ranks? what stops them from inviting Cuba to the bloc then?
In one of his 'shows' this week, he also said he had to 'swallow frogs and snakes' to deal with Argentina. Great diplomacy.
He is finished anyway with the Uruguayo population really fed up with him.
Oh! He also said the army are going to grow the ganga in the north of the country, so the plan about legalising it has not died after all.
(Mujica, President of Uruguay, a leading member of Mercosur.)
Oh, I see.
This must be why he was so reluctant to be personally seen to ratify the agreement.
I guess he now has to 'talk it up'.
Why do you comment on something you don't care about? You don't care about uruguay. Being a typical argie thief, you no doubt want to “recover” it. But you can't really do it. Must be “difficult” being one of a population of 40 million war criminals. By all means carry on displaying what a bunch of turds you are. Just to cheer you up, every time I have a dump I have a look in the pan and am reminded of you.
@10 You're joking. An army growing ganja? How to turn an “army” into a useless bunch of drug addicts. Whose idea would that have been? CFK's?
@11 Wasn't it the 3 presidents that got together? I can just imagine the two women whining at Pepe until they got their way. “You're not leaving this room until you agree!” Mujica dare not try to hold out, on so many fronts. And next month he will be faced with bully boy Chavez as well.
So you are bipolar as well as a nong?
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