Mondino avoided answering Lacalle Pou and showed himself with Lula da Silva

In Recognitionduring Summit of Presidents of Mercosur upon which the President Xavier Miley decided not to participateChancellor Diana Mondino He called for an “upgrading” of the bloc at the level of institutional, financial and external relations. “Without free trade there is no economic prosperity and if there is no peace there is no free trade,” he said, calling for the closing of a free trade agreement with the EU as soon as possible. The official represented the country, noting that the head of state of Argentina was absent, in the middle of the cross with his Brazilian counterpart, one of the protagonists of the meeting. Lula da Silvawith whom he has differences of opinion.

This absence of the independentist generated critical comments from Uruguay Louis Lacalle Pou, “All presidents should be here,” He said there had already been some spicy negotiations with Milley’s predecessor, Alberto Fernández, at the Mercosur meetings held every six months to transfer the pro tempore presidency of the organization created in 1991. “Not only is the message important, but it is very important the messenger is important,” he said.

Santiago PenaMeanwhile, Paraguay’s president said he could not convince Miley to attend the summit. Mondino confined himself to conveying a message of good wishes on behalf of the President and explained that his absence was due to the vigil he was going to hold tonight in Tucumán where he would sign, with governors and other officials from several provinces, the so-called “The May Agreement“Which was delayed by a few months, mainly because of delays in approval of the base legislation in Congress.

Before the start of the session, the Foreign Minister had personal contacts with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira. “Ahead of the Mercosur summit, President Lula reiterated to Foreign Minister Mondino the importance of Brazil-Argentina relations in favor of the interests of the States and their populations. He highlighted the close ties of recent decades as a legacy of defense and expansion,” Itamaraty published.

“We understand that these are the ideas of freedom that should be Our road map to prevent us from becoming a mini MercosurProtected, Feared, A roadmap to achieving, paraphrasing our next President Pro Tempore, my dear Lacalle Pou, A more resilient Mercosur, a more modern Mercosur”Mondino tried to take a somewhat cooler stance on the situation in the last part of his speech with the mention of Uruguay in his sentence.

Argentina’s proposal for update or upgrade The regional block is based on three points. “The first one Updates Mercosur’s institutionalization, which allows it to adapt in decision-making processes and organize multiple funds, groups; they should be organized for greater agility and coherence. Second, A Updates The financial system that guarantees the rational and prudent use of the resources of States Partieswith a comprehensive reform of the institutional structure of Mercosur, because who decides what and how to spend it cannot be left isolated, there must be a collegiate decision and audit. And third, a Updates External relations of MERCOSUR.There is a direct relationship between peace, trade and prosperity. We all know that there is no economic prosperity without free trade, and if there is no peace there is no free trade,” the minister summarized.

“So far, Mercosur It has not succeeded in becoming a means of access to large external markets. We have not been able – sometimes because of the position of third parties, sometimes because of our own decisions – to reach preferential agreements with countries or blocs that are today part of the most dynamic trade flows globally. We are negotiating with the EU, but also with EFTA (NDER: European Free Trade Association), Singapore, many of the countries that are here, Asia, countries that have approached us: Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, to whom we propose a new, faster form of negotiation,” he assured.

According to the official, to do this it will have to be achieved “A gluttonous Mercosur, on steroids; these 30 years where not much progress was made must come to an end.” As an example, he cited the delay in reaching a free trade agreement with the European Union, an issue that has been undefined for several years because of opposition from Brazil and also from some European countries, to which the respective parliaments must give their approval. “We must give a clear signal of our commitment to close negotiations with the EU, let’s not take our contradictions to the other side. We have already demonstrated our determination to reach a fair and mutually beneficial agreement,” Mondino commented.

He also proposed “Eliminate tariff barriers. “Our government launched detailed work, almost a census, on all the barriers within Mercosur that must be eliminated or modified to improve intra-zone trade flows, and from there integrate us and the rest of the world.”

The Minister began his speech with regret that it had not been possible to reach a final consensus on the adoption of the draft Joint communiqué of States Parties and Associated States

For which all our delegations made long efforts and efforts to reflect the position of each of us. It has been a practical and indeed constructive exercise, when most of the text was practically agreed upon we were close to reaching a consensus. “We all must be heard.” However he highlighted that “the added value of this type of meeting certainly lies in the exchange of points of view, which, far from becoming a problem, should be accepted as a healthy practice for the benefit of all its members.”

“We are in a turbulent world. Yet, there are almost 300 trade agreements around the world. We firmly believe that the best way to face global challenges is to promote ideas of freedom. For Argentina, ambiguities are over. We believe in defending the right to life, liberty and private property, in respecting and protecting the life project of others based on the principle of non-aggression,” he explained.

With regard to the operation of the bloc, he said that “in technical terms we have moved from creating trade to diverting trade. “Moreover, we have a very imperfect customs union.” And he asked himself: Can we really aspire to be a common market integrated with the world if we are not at one with each other? Because we don’t work on it internally. As Peña said, we have had marches and counter-marches. And over time, Mercosur stopped being an escape valve for our own instabilities and became a corset. Something that squeezes us and doesn’t let us move.”

Mondino also mentioned the economic efforts being made by the Argentine government. “In a few days it will be 7 months since our new government was formed, where Argentina created an extremely complex, harmful system of export controls. In December our monthly inflation equaled 54%. Now it has been reduced to 3.5, 4, but this is nonsense, we have to continue working a lot. We found that importers owe $50 billion and dividends of more than 15 thousand are frozen, as well as the agreement is also frozen. International Monetary Fund 25 billion,” he listed.

Finally he said: “We are working on it and if we improve all these internal problems we believe that (the countries) of Mercosur can stop being a burden and contribute to development. Internally we started a process of reforming the state, this financial balance we have already achieved.”