RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – This is a shift towards greater diplomacy, hours after Donald Trump’s call to Alberto Fernández to congratulate him on his victory and express support.
“Argentina needs Brazil and we need Argentina.” Jair Bolsonaro’s statement is evidence, above all, that the shift towards the normalization of bilateral relations has begun. In so doing, the Brazilian president seems to have interred his intention of calling for the suspension of Argentina in Mercosur, but also for Brazil to leave the bloc.
This shift towards greater diplomacy and less arrogance occurs not by chance, hours after Donald Trump called Alberto Fernández to congratulate him on his election.
Bolsonaro tried to preserve some of the aggressive tone used after October 27th, following the electoral victory of the Frente de Todos candidate. He reiterated: “I do not intend to call (Alberto) to wish him luck. Nor am I going to the inauguration. If someone in the government wants to go, all they need to do is talk to me; if there are any volunteers, they are free to go”.
This suggests that a cabinet minister, or perhaps even Vice-president Hamilton Mourão, may be present in Buenos Aires during the events on December 10th. Earlier this week, Bolsonaro was still expressing his dissatisfaction with the Argentinian President-elect.
Bolsonaro’s son, federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, went so far as to publish two adjoining pictures on Twitter: one, of himself with a machine gun resting between his legs. The other, that of Estanislao Fernández (Alberto’s son) dressed in colorful clothes and wearing makeup.
Estanislao responded to this tactless message by thanking the Brazilian people for the messages of apology for what Eduardo Bolsonaro had said and for the support he received.
In truth, there were subsequent actions by Alberto Fernández that aroused suspicion in Brazil. One of the most significant is that the future president has decided to visit the Mexican head of state, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in his capacity as elected president.
Yet, the preferred focus of conservatives’ anger is another of Alberto’s attitudes: his request for Lula da Silva’s release and the publication of an emotional letter, in which Lula greeted him for his victory, sent from the former president’s prison cell in Curitiba.
In Brasília, they claimed that the “Free Lula” speech on the day of the victory was a “discourtesy” towards Bolsonaro.
Before that, and from his tour in the Middle East, the Brazilian president went so far as to say: “I’m sorry, I don’t have a crystal ball. But I think Argentina chose poorly”. And he added: “I’m not saying that we will leave Mercosur. But we can join Paraguay and maybe Uruguay, depending on the election results, and then decide if Argentina harms any clause in the agreement. If it does, then we can remove it”.
On that occasion, he left aside his warnings that he would be willing to leave the southern bloc unless there was an agreement to reduce taxes on imports from third countries.
This concept of easing the inflow of imports from the rest of the world by lowering Mercosur’s common external tariff will be debated on December 5th at the trading bloc’s presidential summit to be held in Bento Gonçalves, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes has drafted a proposal to halve the customs tax. The initiative, however, has not been approved by Brazil’s business sectors. Far from it, the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) voiced its disagreement with a measure that will undermine the Brazilian industrial sector.
According to the body, Brazilian industry has not yet achieved the productivity required to face competition from goods manufactured abroad (particularly Chinese). On the other hand, the CNI recalled Argentina’s key role as a buyer of 80 percent of Brazil’s manufactured exports.
Washington’s negotiating stance, Mike Pompeo and Trump’s own predisposition to “work together” with the next Argentinian government, as well as the Brazilian establishment’s own warnings to its president, account for the relaxation of conflicting statements.
“I ask God for him to be successful. But he has already won (Alberto) and we are moving forward. There is no intention of retaliation on my part,” Bolsonaro said on Friday. It was a preview of his statement this Saturday.
Source: Infobae