Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro and Argentina’s president Mauricio Macri said they agreed to continue integrating their economies (number one and two in South America), as strategic partners, by “perfecting” the Mercosur trade block and pressing ahead with negotiations that are already underway, such as the ongoing free trade and cooperation agreement with the European Union.
The far-right front-runner in Brazil’s presidential race plans to put foreign policy in the hands of a diplomat who has praised the nationalist agenda of U.S. President Donald Trump that has shaken the global order, an adviser to the candidate said.
Brazil’s far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro has promised to continue his country's participation in the Mercosur trading bloc but says he will move it away from “ideology”.“The Mercosur has value but it was disfigured by the PT (Brazil's Workers' Party)”, Bolsonaro said at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday. “I won’t abandon the Mercosur but it won’t continue to be guided by ideology”, he added.