SOUTH America’s Mercosur bloc sought Thursday to expand its markets in the face of US President Donald Trump’s global trade war, with Brazil calling for closer ties with dynamic Asian economies.
“It’s time for Mercosur to look towards Asia,” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said, extolling the potential benefits of deeper relations with Japan, China, South Korea, India, Vietnam and Indonesia.
In a reflection of regional tensions, however, Argentina’s President Javier Milei threatened to go it alone if necessary to secure a free trade deal with the United States.
Lula, on his first trip to Argentina since Milei took office in December 2023, had no bilateral talks with the self-declared “anarcho-capitalist”.
The veteran Brazilian leftist, who took over Mercosur’s rotating presidency from his Argentine counterpart, has accused Milei of talking “nonsense”.
dership, Mercosur would aim to “strengthen inter-bloc trade with external partners” and to implement a landmark trade agreement with the European Union. Brussels in December struck a deal with Mercosur’s founding members — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — to create a free trade zone of around 700 million consumers.
The agreement has been 25 years in the making, but still needs to be ratified by EU member states. It has faced stiff opposition from France, where farmers worry about being undercut by less-regulated Latin American peers.
Climate change on agenda
Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi said that it was now “time to resume negotiations with key partners such as South Korea and Canada.” Uruguay has for decades sought a relaxation of the bloc’s rules, which prevent agreements with other countries without the consent of all partners. Climate change, the energy transition, combatting organized crime and promoting technological development would be Mercosur’s main objectives during the next six months, Lula said.
AFP
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