MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Other blocks demand too much from Mercosur and offer too little”

Promoting Mercosur, Samuel Pinheiro main job

Several Mercosur negotiations with other blocks have failed because “they ask too much and offer too little” said Samuel Pinheiro recently appointed Mercosur High Representative and who is holding a round of meetings with member countries’ leaders.

“Other blocks many times hold positions with few concessions but many demands and then blame the other side for not collaborating. They ask too much and offer too little and obviously we are not collaborating!” said Pinheiro during his visit to Montevideo where he met with President Jose Mujica.

He added “we can’t collaborate with unbalanced accords, we need agreements that are favourable for both sides, this is something which many times make negotiations difficult, but a bad agreement is worse than a non agreement”.

Pinheiro was particularly enthusiastic about Mercosur and its achievements and said one of his main tasks in the job will be to change the perception that Mercosur is not working.

“Member countries economies are performing, they are creating jobs, why then so much about Mercosur that it is not working? Mercosur is its member countries it’s not a superior entity. But there’s this image that things are ‘not working’ in spite of the fact trade is booming. In Paraguay we are building the grid from the Itaipú dam to Asuncion and in Uruguay we have the power inter-connection, which are very important”, underlined Pinheiro.

The representative said that other tasks will be promoting a debate on the future of Mercosur, “what we want out of Mercosur, and if we are on the right course”, managing proposals and meeting the persons who supported him for the job, “particularly that they can trust me to represent the four countries and not the country I come from (Brazil)”.

More specifically regarding his visit to Uruguay, Pinheiro said he had great interest in meeting with President Mujica to talk about Mercosur, integration and regional politics.

“President Mujica is well aware of the significance of Mercosur for Uruguay and the future of South America. He called for the integration not only of South America but the rest of our continent because there are many uncertainties, much competition, an asymmetric globalization and it is essential we keep together”, said Mercosur High Representative.

Finally regarding the current trade talks with the European Union, Pinheiro said that Mercosur has improved its proposal over the years but other blocks have remained in the position ‘of doing nothing” of which the Doha round is evidence. “They want to make few concessions and that we make many concessions”.