Uruguay's President José Mujica said that Mercosur bloc is stalled and has no natural institutional operation to push other countries to express their willingness to enter it plus lacking the fluidity of a natural relationship.
Brazil has plans to counter the latest battery of trade restrictions which Argentina announced, if they turn out to the barriers for Brazilian exports, reported the influential Folha de Sao Paulo.
Ships from the Falkland Islands that are barred from ports in Argentina and other Mercosur trade bloc countries can re-flag as British ships at any time to avoid the ban, British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.
“In practical terms Venezuela if fully integrated to Mercosur” said Uruguayan Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro during a meeting this week with foreign correspondents.
The Argentine government has began a round of consultations with the manufacturing sector to determine which capital goods from non Mercosur members can be listed for a higher common external tariff as was recently agreed by the trade block.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica and former leader Lula da Silva, under treatment for larynx cancer, said in Sao Paulo on Tuesday that they would like to have a group of Latin American intellectuals involved in the discussion and promotion of regional integration as a doctrine.
While Argentina’s Mercosur trade partners have adopted a cautious attitude regarding the latest measures that make it more cumbersome and bureaucratic to sell to Argentina, the country’s manufacturers and importers have warned of the consequences and called for a more balanced approach to the issue.
The British government said it would resist any attempts to coerce the Falkland Islands through economic or other pressures, and revealed it is holding ‘productive discussions’ with Uruguay, Chile and Brazil to ensure trade and commercial links between the Islands and South America are not compromised by political declarations.
British Prime Minister David Cameron discarded any Falkland Islands sovereignty negotiations with Argentina and said that his government is permanently vigilant about the protection of the Islands and their defence.
Mercosur soybean production is expected to fall 2.9% after dry weather and heat damaged crops in Brazil and Paraguay and as conditions deteriorate in Argentina, Hamburg-based industry researcher Oil World said.