MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mercosur was not created to become a fortress of 'hyper-protectionism'

Sanguinetti said that Mercosur can't be locked by tariffs for Brazilian manufacturing or Argentina's ports' hegemonic policies

Former Uruguayan president Julio Maria Sanguinetti and founder of the Montevideo Circle Foundation said Mercosur was not created to become a fortress of hyper protectionism but rather to promote competition and integration with flexibility. Sanguinetti participated in a round of conferences of the Montevideo Circle Foundation in Paraguay.

“Mercosur was not created to change the limits of the world at national or regional level and lock itself in; it was founded in 1991 as a platform to launch us to the world, to try and grow, to increase exports, particularly Paraguay and Uruguay which are small countries with small economies, and they need to be open to develop” said Sanguinetti.

He emphasized that “Mercosur needs to grow outwards, we have all going for us to achieve this: we can't change of neighborhood because that belongs to geography, but that is not reason enough to dismiss a common political horizon or for that matter to build a fortress of hyper protectionism”.

The former Uruguayan leader said that Mercosur must continue to build with patience in search of integration but with more flexibility.

“We need to look for agreements with third countries, look for competition, growth and development on strong foundations; we can't lock ourselves in tariffs that must be adapted to Brazilian manufacturing or to Argentina's ports' policy which means keeping to the same hegemonic influence of colonial times”, underlined Sanguinetti.

The Montevideo Circle was born in 1996 sponsored by then president Sanguinetti and with the participation of intellectuals, academia, politicians, economists from Latin America and Europe with the purpose of discussing proposals to promote democracy, open markets and state reform, as the tools to ensure development and social inclusion