Buenos Aires – The signing of a free-trade agreement with Egypt and the passing of a regional projects should be the highlights of the next edition of the Mercosur Summit, scheduled to take place in San Juan, Argentina, on August 2nd and 3rd. The largest such project is an electrical connection between Brazil and Uruguay. With US$ 300 million investment, the connection should link Candiota, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, to the Uruguayan city of San Carlos, and should meet Uruguayan needs.
The information was disclosed yesterday (22nd) in Buenos Aires by the Brazilian ambassador to Argentina, Enio Cordeiro. Other projects concern an electrical connection between Argentinean cities, the building of a road between two Paraguayan cities, support to Argentinean small- and medium-sized capital good-exporting enterprises, urban sanitation in the city of Ponta Porã, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, and the building of an electric power transmission line linking Brazil and Paraguay.
Ambassador Enio Cordeiro claimed that projects should receive investment of US$ 575 million form the Mercosur Structural Convergence Fund (Focem, in the Portuguese acronym). Established in 2006, the fund is the Mercosur’s premier financial instrument for reducing regional imbalances between Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina, which comprise the bloc. The Focem consists of non-reimbursable funds invested by the four Mercosur member countries, and total US$ 100 million per year.
In San Juan, the ministers of Justice and Interior will give special attention to the agenda. They are concluding an agreement to form joint teams for investigation and police collaboration at border regions. Ministers of Education, Healthcare, Culture, Social Development, Justice and Interior from Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, countries associated with the Mercosur, will also attend the Summit.
According to the Brazilian ambassador, the attendance of the Mexican and Turkish Foreign Relations ministers is yet to be confirmed, as these countries have shown interest in getting to know the mechanisms that drive the Mercosur’s integration process.
Enio Cordeiro stated that information will be disclosed on the progress that has been made towards the establishment of a coordinated group of Mercosur social sector ministers. In 2002, during the Summit held in Sauípe, in the state of Bahia, the conclusion was drawn that social development policies in the Mercosur required coordination, and that goals needed to be set. In San Juan, the Argentinean minister of Social Development, Alícia Kirchner, will keep foreign ministers posted on the status of works for devising a strategic social plan for the bloc.
According to the ambassador, it is unlikely that the Mercosur’s customs code will be discussed in San Juan, because there are still pending matters to be solved, such as double taxation on imports in the bloc’s countries. As for trade agreements between the Mercosur and the European Union, Cordeiro reminded that the two parties have met recently in Buenos Aires to resume negotiations, which had come to a halt in 2004.
“The worst that can happen when it comes to trade-related negotiations is the setting of deadlines beforehand,” said Cordeiro, “because it provides those who oppose the negotiations with a rational, be they from South America or from Europe. Laying the foundation to an agreement requires silence and discretion. I would not dare set deadlines for negotiations to be concluded. I believe that the great different today, compared with the Mercosur and the European Union in 2004, is that now there in political will. Negotiation has been resumed based on decisions made by the presidents of these two blocs.”
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
