MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Bye, Bye Mercosur” promises Uruguayan presidential hopeful

“Mercosur has become political and forgotten trade”, said former Pte. Lacalle

One of the Uruguayan leading opposition presidential hopefuls questioned once again the attitude of Mercosur senior members (Argentina and Brazil) in trade issues adding that the reiterated presence of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez only confirms that the South American trade block has become increasingly and predominantly “political”.

"The original free trade project has been replaced by a predominant political focus which inevitably leads us to an opaque decline" of the whole concept said former president Luis Alberto Lacalle and the conservative pre candidate of the main opposition party in Uruguay, National party. Lacalle said that obstacles to trade persist and "when Uruguay manages favorable rulings they are not complied by senior Mercosur members. They've created a Parliament which faced with a violation of the Asuncion Treaty, as was and is the blocking of international bridges by pickets, it steps aside saying it's not an issue for congress, and when Uruguay appeals to the highest tribunals of the block, Brazil points out that the pulp mill dispute with Argentina is a bilateral issue!" "This is a lesson for all of us Uruguayans", added Lacalle recalling the words of an outstanding Uruguayan leader "Beware the weak if they have to depend for their happiness on the benevolence of the powerful". Lacalle made the comments in his weekly column of his group's publication Patria, under the title both in Spanish and Portuguese, saying "bye, bye Mercosur". The former president said that the Asuncion Treaty, signed in March 1991 was geared to coordinate the economic processes and tariffs of the four founding country members, which was accomplished in its first stage until 1994. However, "19 agonizing years have elapsed lost in the labyrinth of the accessories, overwhelmed by the lack of understanding from the most and devalued in extreme by the myopia of the large members", wrote Lacalle underlining that "blinded by the false rays of the ephemeral and trodden by the weight of useless institutions together with the omission from junior country members and devalued by the selfish bilateral attitude of senior members", the block is condemned to an opaque declination.