MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian private sector divided over Venezuela and Mercosur

The congressional controversy in Brazil over the incorporation of Venezuela has moved to the business sector. A group of Brazilian businessmen have begun lobbying strongly for Venezuela’s full membership but the process has been stalled by Brazilian and Paraguayan law makers.

The legislative branches of Argentina and Uruguay have already approved the initiative.

The incorporation of Venezuela to Mercosur will render Brazil a “strategic market not only because of its potential demand, but also because of its geo-economic and logistic condition”, said on Sunday Francisco Marcondes, president of the Venezuela-Brazil Chamber of Commerce Federation.

The natural complementation between both countries will mean “great benefits for Brazil and for its entrepreneurs”, added Marcondes, contradicting the Brazilian Confederation of Industries which argues that the weight of Venezuela in Brazil’s foreign trade balance is “minimal” and there is also “an evident lack of legal certainty” for the Brazilian exporter working with the oil rich country.

“We must publicly sustain that the CNI position does not correspond with facts or the interests of the great majority of Brazilian manufacturers”, added Marcondes in an official communiqué from the Chambers of Commerce Federation.

Delaying access of Venezuela to Mercosur means “disregarding advantages to increase markets in the continent for Brazilian exporters and allow the strategic penetration to an important regional market of a competitor such as China …particularly in the midst of an unprecedented global financial crisis”.

Finally the communiqué calls to leave aside “political or ideological considerations related to governments limited in time, inevitably temporary, and concentrate in relations between peoples and countries, which are permanent”.

In the Brazilian Congress there are a significant number of members who refuse to accept Venezuela into Mercosur, alleging the limited compliance with “the democratic clause” the trade block demands from its members.

Some like Senate president Jose Sarney go further and say they can’t understand the concept of “democratic revolution” implemented by President Hugo Chavez.

The administration of President Lula da Silva that supports the initiative has repeatedly argued that President Chavez has been legitimized in several elections and referendums.