MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Bolsonaro recommends “prudence” before signing any Mercosur/EU agreement
“I've spoken to our future foreign minister Araújo and he recommended to act with prudence so Brazil does not miss any markets overseas”, Bolsonaro said 
Incoming Agriculture minister, Tereza Cristina is a strong critic of Mercosur and is widely supported by the agro-business lobby 
Macron, in Buenos Aires for G20, indicated he did not favor “trade agreements” with countries which do not respect the Paris agreement on climate change Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro said “prudence” was necessary before signing any trade agreement with other nations, in reference to the ongoing negotiations between Mercosur and the European Union.
Bolsonaro, the great absentee of the G20 summit, particularly for Latin America since Brazil is the largest economy, pointed out he had the feeling Argentine president Mauricio Macri wanted to “anticipate” negotiations between Mercosur and EU, but “that is a decision that the incoming Brazilian administration will have to work on, with caution and keeping in mind our policy is trading with the whole world”.
“I've spoken to our future foreign minister Ernesto Araújo and he recommended to act with prudence so that Brazil does not miss any markets overseas”, Bolsonaro told media on Friday. Several ministers of the president-elect cabinet have questioned Mercosur as an obstacle to developing trade links.
This is particularly true of the incoming Agriculture minister, Tereza Cristina who has strong support from the agro-business lobby, and also question “environmental” bureaucracy.
Bolsonaro's statements follow on Thursday's comments by French president Emmanuel Macron, currently in Buenos Aires for G20, who suggested that he did not favor “trade agreements” with countries which do not respect the Paris agreement on climate change. Earlier in the week Brazil announced it was not going to host a climate change world conference next year because of budget restraints.
But the president elect was quoted by the media saying that environmental politics can't muddle with Brazil's development “today, the (Brazilian) economy is almost back on track thanks to agribusiness, and they are suffocated by environmental questions.”
However Bolsonaro downplayed the French leader's comments, “the agreement between Mercosur and the EU affects French interests, a country also concentrated in the agribusiness, so Macron depends on what France and its farmers decide”.
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Read all comments“Several ministers of the president-elect cabinet have questioned Mercosur as an obstacle to developing trade links”...........exactly. Every time a trade agreement with Europe seemed to be getting close, Brazil's Mercosur partners botched it. Why should the Mercosur be allowed to prevent Brazil from signing bilateral agreements with other countries, if as a block it is incapable of ?
Dec 01st, 2018 - 07:44 pm +1If Macron chooses to boycot Brazil due to environmental issues, it's his call, but just as important as it is to preserve the environment, namely the Amazon region, it is also important to establish rules which permit timely, transparent decisions (from the Ministry of the Environment) when it comes down to approving (or not) large engineering (and other) projects. The current conflict with the agribusiness is just one more of the aspects, where inefficiency translates into losses and people doing what they want. Presently, the Ministry of the Environment drags it's feet, at times taking years to come up with a decision, and meanwhile everything is put on hold.
Besides this specific issue, which demands quicker, better decisions, the Environmental authorities are extremely inefficient in preventing illegal loggers.....it's quite common for the government itself to not even follow its own official policy, even less to achieve its targets,
leaving the door open to all sorts of problems.
While the environmentalists are against chopping down any forests (or development in areas other than those that have already been devastated by bad policy / lack of supervision), the agribusiness, the mining industry can't wait to chop 'em down, so where's the happy medium ?
Believe a reasonable solution will only be found when both sides get down to some serious thinking, that converges towards a common interest.
@Chicureo
Dec 03rd, 2018 - 02:07 am +1Actually deforestation fell during Lula's presidency, then started to rise again during Dilma's, but I doubt you care about the loss of the Amazon any more than you do about accuracy.
It isn't in leftists' imagination that Bolso considered leaving the Paris agreement, has a climate-change denialist in his cabinet, and cancelled Brazil's offer to host the UN climate change meeting next year, besides the fact he's sucking up to Trump who is avowedly anti-science. But from what you say you prefer short term profit (and not even your own!) to the long term good of everyone, so why not just admit Bolso is likely to be as bad for the environment as Trump and you're happy about that?
President Bolsonaro completely understands “environmental politics” are seriously detrimental to Brazil's development. He would be wise to avoid any French “assistance.”
Dec 01st, 2018 - 02:43 pm 0I think his mindset is Brazil first, scr*w the Greenpeace environmentalists.
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