Mercosur celebrated this Wednesday (17.07.2019) in the city of Santa Fe, in the northwest of Argentina, the new boost given by the recent agreement with the European Union, a momentum that the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, promises to maintain in order to gain new markets and speed up the internal dynamics of the South American bloc.
The summit was the most fruitful in recent years, showing that Mercosur has managed to break away from the inertia of recent times and take a leap that all the presidents of the bloc describe as "historic."
Accelerate the external agenda
Mauricio Macri, whose six-month presidency of Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) saw the strategic alliance with the European Union sealed after nearly twenty years of arduous negotiations, was congratulated by all his colleagues, who agreed that the EU pact consolidates the position of South Americans to accelerate the negotiations underway with other blocs and countries and deepen rapprochement with the Pacific Alliance (Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico).
Bolsonaro, who is taking over the leadership of the bloc founded in 1991 for the first time, said: "We want a Mercosur with less talk and more action"Said. For the Brazilian president, the foreign agenda will be one of his priorities.
Achievements in connectivity and the digital agenda
The group also signed an agreement under which the four countries in the bloc will eliminate the "roaming" service charges that telephone companies apply when using another company's network when crossing into another country.
"This Agreement constitutes a concrete action to benefit the movement of citizens of the States Parties in the region and a fundamental step to strengthen regional integration, particularly in terms of connectivity," says the declaration.
The bloc highlighted the progress made in the implementation and deepening of the 2018-2020 Action Plan of the MERCOSUR Digital Agenda with a view to developing a modern integration process and a free, secure and inclusive regional digital market, prepared for rapid technological transformation.
About the AEC
The issue is complex. "The group began the work of analyzing and reviewing the common external tariff (CET), in the understanding that this constitutes a fundamental instrument for the consolidation of the Customs Union and that the tariff policy of MERCOSUR must promote competitiveness, productivity and the insertion of the Member States in regional and global value chains," says the final document.
A tariff dismantling, even if partial, will generally benefit agriculture and mining in Mercosur, but will impact the industrial fabric of member countries, especially in Argentina and Brazil. The organization's external tariffs are 35% and constitute the skeleton that has kept Mercosur alive during its 28 years of existence.
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