MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Neves wants Brazil to have the Pacific Alliance as an integration reference

“I want Brazil to rescue its capacity to have a balanced foreign policy” said Neves who criticized Rousseff for giving priority to ideology over trade relations

Brazilian presidential opposition candidate Aecio Neves insisted that if elected he will review Mercosur rules and make them “more flexible” so that the country can reach bilateral agreements with third parties and not limited by the consensus clause of the trade block. He also mentioned the Pacific Alliance as a pragmatic integration reference.

“We can't allow, as it has happened during the last two years, for example that Argentina and Venezuela impeded Brazil from advancing in agreements with other regions of the world that would have been beneficial for us”, insisted Neves.

The Social-democrat candidate who next Sunday will dispute the run-off for Brazil's main elected post against president Dilma Rousseff bidding for re-election, underlined that “Brazil must have good relations with its neighbors”, but also recalled that “foreign policy is business”.

Neves accused the government of Rousseff of having given priority to 'ideology' in foreign relations over trade links.

“I want Brazil to rescue its capacity to have a balanced foreign policy, as it has always been, more pragmatic, particularly regarding advancing and opening new markets for those who produce in Brazil”.

Neves mentioned as a possible integration model that of the Pacific Alliance, made up of Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico.

According to the latest public opinion polls the two candidates are technically neck to neck, although the error margin favors Dilma with two to three percentage points. Nevertheless it remains an open result given the intensity of the campaign and volatility of the Brazilian electorate in the last few weeks.