MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil eliminates Mercosur symbol from new passports

The current Brazilian passport with the Mercosur symbol identification

Brazilian new passports will no longer have the symbol of Mercosur as currently they do together with those from the other member states, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. The announcement was made by cabinet chief Onyx Lorenzoni, during a press conference in which he anticipated the targets for the first hundred days of president Jair Bolsonaro's administration.

The purpose of the new Brazilian passports is to strengthen national identity and love for the motherland, explained Lorenzini.

“We are going to eliminate from Brazilian passports the Mercosur identification; we are going to return the symbol of the Republic to the document”, underlined the cabinet chief. Nevertheless those already issued with the Mercosur symbol will remain valid.

Lorenzini underlined that the decision has no rupture consequences with the trade block that also includes Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, plus Venezuela which remains suspended.

Since the new Bolsonaro administration took office several of his ministers, Economy and Agriculture, downplayed the significance of Mercosur arguing trade and Brazilian interests would prevail over ideology, and insisted that Brazil must be free to sign trade accords with third countries, currently limited to the block's consensus.

“Brazil will trade with the whole world, that is our objective, forget ideology or comradeship. We are open to all the world”, said Economy minister Paulo Guedes.

However in a recent meeting between Bolsonaro and his Argentine peer, Mauricio Macri, the two leaders did point out the importance or reaching a trade agreement with the European Union, a deal that has been on the negotiations table for almost two decades.