MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mercosur agenda remains stalled complains Paraguay

With only two months for the Mercosur presidential summit there have been no advances in vital issues such as trade barriers and the Customs Code, reported Oscar Rodríguez Campuzano, Paraguay’s Deputy minister for International Economic Relations.

The next summit is to be hosted in Paraguay’s capital Asunción next July 4, when Uruguay takes over the pro tempore chair of the trade block.

“The international financial crisis is making countries fearful of opening their markets or advance in the integration process”, said Rodriguez Campuzano on Wednesday just back from a trade meeting in Montevideo.

Countries are looking to implement measures to protect their industries, production and jobs, he added following a meeting with Paraguay’s Foreign Affairs minister Hector Lacognata to report on this trip to Montevideo.

Paraguay and Uruguay, Mercosur junior members, claim Argentina and Brazil impose visible and “invisible” barriers which impede access to those markets, and have implemented a bilateral decision making process which leaves them out.

The last addition to the long list of complaints is Argentina’s decision to limit and reduce benefits to soybeans transit through its territory which affects directly landlocked Paraguay and Bolivia exports.

The Customs code, which pretends among other things to eliminate double taxing for a good which enters one of Mercosur members but is destined to another, remains stalled because of Argentina’s insistence in taxing cereals and oilseeds exports and Paraguay’s position on the distribution of the tariffs collected.

“Mercosur remains an imperfect customs union and still has a long way to go before becoming a common market”, said Rodriguez Campuzano.

Another controversial issue, pending from 2006 is the full incorporation to Mercosur of Venezuela. The request is under debate in the Brazilian and Paraguayan legislative branches where there is considerable resistance to the proposal in spite of strong lobbying from the Executives.

Brazilian president Lula da Silva said he expects the Brazilian Congress to have approved the protocols by the end of May when Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is scheduled to visit Brazil.