MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Criticism for the “Buenos Aires Consensus”.

Chilean economist and former World Bank official who currently teaches in the University of California, Sebastian Edwards criticized the “Buenos Aires consensus” recently signed in Buenos Aires between Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Argentine counterpart Nestor Kirchner.

Mr. Edwards said the agreement was just "a collection of good intentions", adding that it's one of those confusing ideas born in the region "such as Mercosur".

Argentina must address its foreign trade without Brazil and Mercosur "should actually be a flexible, pragmatic association where Argentine national interests are clearly defined, since they are certainly not the same as those of Brazil".

The Chilean economist made the statements during an economic seminar held in Buenos Aires and organized by FIEL, a liberal think-tank closely linked to former conservative Argentine presidential candidate Ricardo López Murphy.

Talking about the financial turbulences that had such a negative impact in the whole region, Mr. Edwards was particularly emphatic when recalling that countries in the Mercosur region "ignored the dangers of unrestricted capital movements, ignored the costs of overvalued currencies and wishfully believed economies would permanently expand at an annual rate of 7%".