MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei brings open disputes with Brazil to a Mercosur summit focused on trade deals

Argentine President Javier Milei will take part on Monday and Tuesday in the Mercosur summit of heads of state in Asunción, a meeting whose trade agenda —led by the agreement with the European Union— will coexist with open political tensions with Brazil that threaten to overshadow the bloc's progress. Paraguay's Foreign Minister, Rubén Ramírez, confirmed the presence of seven leaders, among them the presidents of Chile, José Antonio Kast, and Ecuador, Daniel Noboa.

The main point of friction is the differences between Milei and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Brasília views with unease the tariff agreement that Argentina signed with the United States in February, which eliminated duties on some 1,675 products, fearing it may generate “distortions” within the bloc; the objection was formally raised by the Brazilian delegation at a preparatory meeting in March. Underlying it is a structural difference: Milei is seeking to loosen Mercosur's rules so that each country can negotiate trade agreements independently, a stance that clashes with the vision of common integration that Brazil defends.

Added to that is Argentina's decision to request membership in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a bloc of twelve economies that includes Japan, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. The move, formalized this month by Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno, opens an unprecedented question, since it would place Argentina in the same trade space as the United Kingdom, with Argentina's claim to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands still in force; last week, Quirno demanded that London negotiate sovereignty before the UN Decolonization Committee. According to international trade specialists, Lula's recent announcement of negotiations for a Mercosur-Japan agreement would function as a maneuver to reduce the appeal of an individual entry by Argentina or Uruguay into the trans-Pacific pact.

The tension will have a symbolic chapter before the summit: on Monday, in Buenos Aires, Milei will receive Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, one of the leading opposition figures to Lula ahead of October's elections, at a conference. Analysts read the gesture as a sign of political alignment that Brasília will watch closely.

One issue hanging over the meeting, though not on the official agenda, is the possible reinstatement of Venezuela, suspended from the bloc. Argentina maintains its veto: diplomatic sources hold that the trade and democratic-clause breaches under the Ushuaia Protocol that prompted the suspension persist, while Brazil has proposed reopening the matter. The question was partly displaced by the earthquakes that struck Venezuela on Wednesday, which left more than 1,400 dead and reactivated the dialogue between Buenos Aires and Caracas to coordinate humanitarian aid; CELAC, chaired by Uruguay, expressed its solidarity. Milei also arrives at the summit after the resignation of his cabinet chief, Manuel Adorni, whose replacement will fall to Diego Santilli.