MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
“Other blocks demand too much from Mercosur and offer too little”
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. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesI like that line “ no deal is better then a bad deal” lets hope that is the new slogan for mercosur.
Apr 15th, 2011 - 08:21 am - Link - Report abuse 0I agree. Break off negotiations.
Apr 15th, 2011 - 09:25 am - Link - Report abuse 0It´s obvious that the huge EC needs more the small Mercosur than the inverse.
Apr 15th, 2011 - 12:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0But they want to open markets without exchanging anything...hard to be a success.
Both could benefit from a win-win agreement but seems that it would not be the case.
Samuel looks a funny fellow. Is he Dick Emery in disguise?
Apr 15th, 2011 - 12:52 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I am not economist ,but I look at the roads around firstly,
Apr 15th, 2011 - 01:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0New or old cars( vehicles) ! which ones at majority ?
If you have old vehicles more which means that you are not
forward country yet.
Look at Germany , France roads .you can see the gaps.
Samuel looks a funny fellow. Is he Dick Emery in disguise?
Apr 15th, 2011 - 06:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Now you mention it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1DiaMBIHZY
Mercosur is negotiating external trade deals from a point of SERIOUS DISADVANTAGE.
Apr 15th, 2011 - 07:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The mercosur supranational legislation is not in place,
it had under-developed protocols,
it has no ability to hold its member countries in line when it makes deals, and
it is constantly outflanked by its own members going their own way to the disadvantage of other member countries.
. . . the list goes on.
I have said it before, you cannot negotiate with a pack of ferrets in a sack.
The EU have found this out. Their well-developed protocols simply do not match up with the chaos that is Mercosur.
For instance and importantly - the unwillingness of Mercosur to recognise and respect the legal position of Intellectual Property Rights -
No trading body can or should leave this out of an agreement.
Colombia and Peru have accepted this point in their Agreement with the EU.
To deal with the First World *on an equal footing* you really must put first world protocols in place.
Argentina has nothing to gain with a free trade,with bankrupt countries,like uk,Portugal,Spain,greece et.Mercosur,does not neeed the EU!
Apr 15th, 2011 - 09:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Other blocks demand too much from Mercosur and offer too little”Well, if you mean the EU, they can't offer what they don't have, it's simple Mr. Pinheiro.
Apr 16th, 2011 - 01:44 am - Link - Report abuse 0”Mercosur,does not neeed the EU!” Take note :-)
(7) Geoff
Apr 16th, 2011 - 05:50 am - Link - Report abuse 0You say:
”For instance and importantly - the unwillingness of Mercosur to recognise and respect the legal position of Intellectual Property Rights”
I say:
Sure Geoff, sure………
No reason to read, analyze or discuss what you “generous people” want us to sign……
”Intellectual rights and property” you said?.... What should be the problem?
Signing away the “intellectual rights” for the genome of the original peoples of South-America to the German and American medicinal industries for example?
Or the “intellectual rights” for the genome of the potato, tomato, maize and other inconsequential plants to the American, Spanish and Italian Agro-industrialists?
Sorry for the delay Sir……………Where do we sign!
6 Stick up your Junta
Apr 16th, 2011 - 08:02 am - Link - Report abuse 0Definite resemblance. Haven't seen Dick Emery in years, thanks for that link.
Think #10,
Apr 16th, 2011 - 11:26 am - Link - Report abuse 0Re: intellectual Property Rights:
You are rightly distrustful - this is why the small print in agreements is important.
But , 'speaking for Brasil' if you will allow me, we get benefit from this.
Forgetit will be quick to tell you that China buys what it sees value in (eg Embraer aeroplanes), clones them and produces them with Made in China labels.
Genome rights are protected under the Cancun Convention Biodiversity Agreements and accrue in joint measure to the host country and the reseach partner(s)/industry. The protection documents that Lula's team drew up are presently child-like by comparison to those drafted by the EU team - hence my call to match first world practice.
I think the EU pharmaceutical companies are realistically worried about patent circumvention, following the remarkable introduction by Serra, the Minister of Health, of legislation to disregard patent rights and produce Generic Medicines.
There are billions to be lost and billions to be gained, and billions to be protected.
It is in everybody's interest to have carefully drafted, legislated order rather than 'predatory' exploitation and anarchic chaos.
(12) Geoff
Apr 17th, 2011 - 08:25 am - Link - Report abuse 0You say:
I think the EU pharmaceutical companies are realistically worried about patent circumvention, following the remarkable introduction by Serra, the Minister of Health, of legislation to disregard patent rights and produce Generic Medicines.
I say:
Sometimes I really wonder If you believe the bull**** you write or if your “Special Vision” is so sharp that it allows you to see the word “Turnip” tattooed on anybody else’s forehead?
The “Generic Medicines War” currently going on in Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and the rest of the Word (Europe included) has nothing to do with “Patent Infringement” but all to do with “Generic production and commercialization rights” of good old proven medicinal preparations WITH EXPIRED PATENTS, at prices that the governments and peoples of the world can afford.
Think,
Apr 17th, 2011 - 11:50 am - Link - Report abuse 0the problem has been around for a long time and relates to transnational trade of materials still under patent protection. The key legislative protection is Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
For a remarkably balanced account I recommend the Oxfam paper to the WHO (I have altered to past tense for clarity):
Drug Companies vs. Brazil: The Threat to Public Health (May 2001)
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/health/downloads/drugcomp_brazil.rtf
”Why was it that Brazil produced or imported low-cost generic versions of some of the drugs that were so expensive in rich countries?
The answer was simply that Brazil did not adopt pharmaceutical patenting until 1996. It could therefore legally produce equivalents of expensive medicines patented before that date in the industrialised countries, or import them from India, which also did not have patenting on pharmaceutical products.
Both countries are now obliged by the WTO TRIPS agreement (1996) to have national legislation in place by 2005 which provided patent terms of at least 20 years for all products and processes.
The fact that Brazil met this requirement nearly ten years early was testimony to the intensity of US economic and political pressure, including the use of trade sanctions, although it also reflected a weak commitment on the part of the Brazilian government to a more independent economic development strategy.”
There is a huge subsequent literature on IPR and patent infringement in third world and, particularly, BRICS; and a further literature on subsequent product pricing for the developing world.
Writing this IPR protection into modern transnational trade agreements is just best practice.
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