United States corn exporters are concerned with the fact that Venezuela, one of their prime markets, is now a full member of Mercosur, which includes Brazil and Argentina two major exporting countries.
Brazil's government is considering lowering import duties in the next planned review of regional bloc Mercosur tariffs, which is scheduled to take place in January, Trade Minister Fernando Pimentel announced this week.
By Juan Francisco Alonso - El Universal - Venezuela is not only a full member of the bloc since July 2012, but it also holds the pro-tempore presidency. The entry into force of Venezuela's denunciation of the American Convention on Human Rights, which implies its withdrawal from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court), breaches at least three regulations of Mercosur regional trade bloc.
President Horacio Cartes said that during 2014 links between Paraguay and Mercosur will be fully re-established and by then all the skirmishes motivated by the access of Venezuela as full member of the group, “will be overcome”. However Cartes also mentioned that Paraguay, with support from Chile has a strategic access to the Pacific basin.
The government of President Cristina Fernandez told the business community on Monday that Argentina has an interest in a ‘balanced’ negotiation between Mercosur and the European Union to reach a political, association and trade agreement. However the timetable approach of Argentina does not seem to fit with the rest of Mercosur, mainly Brazil.
Mercosur parliament, Parlasur, resumed activities on Monday and the first thing it agreed on was to name a committee to help find a way out to the controversy between Paraguay and Venezuela. Although Venezuela holds the rotating chair of Mercosur, Paraguay refuses to acknowledge even its status as full member of the regional group.
Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes is expected in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, following an invitation from his Argentine peer Cristina Fernandez, which will be his first overseas bilateral trip since taking office 15 August.
Paraguay as full member and in full exercise of that condition does not recognize Venezuela as president or full member of the group, according to a communiqué sent to all of Paraguay’s ministries and overseas representations.
Foreign minister Eladio Loizaga said Paraguay will hold before Mercosur the same position it sustained at the Unasur summit in Suriname requesting that all decisions adopted during the last year and two months in which the country was suspended, are formally analyzed.
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro apologized to his peer Paraguayan peer Horacio Cartes for any ‘pain’ caused to Paraguay and promised a ‘sacrifice’ to repair the ‘error’, according to sources from both presidents and from Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff who sponsored the meeting between the two heads of state in the framework of the recent Unasur VII summit in Suriname.