RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, reiterated on Thursday, June 17, the criticism of his Argentine counterpart, Alberto Fernández, and at the same time praised the Uruguayan president, Luis Lacalle Pou, of whom he said that “he is doing a good job”.
In a brief conversation with a group of followers, Bolsonaro regretted that Argentina, a Mercosur partner together with Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay, “is in a rather complicated situation”, which he attributed to the fact that “the people there decided to vote for those who plunged the country into a hole.”
The leader of the Brazilian far-right assured that “agribusiness in Argentina no longer compensates” the producer and criticized some measures adopted in the last weeks by President Fernández, such as the temporary suspension of meat exports or tax increases affecting several agricultural products.
“It is a rather complicated situation”, reiterated the president, who still stressed that “Argentines are brothers” of Brazil and that he wishes “the best” for that country, although he doubts the progressive government of Fernández.
In the same context, Bolsonaro gave as a “positive” example Lacalle Pou, of a conservative line closer to his thinking, and of whom he said that “he is doing a good job”, despite the fact that “it is not easy”, since he inherited the government from “the left”.
Although Bolsonaro made no allusion to Mercosur, which Brazil is a member of together with Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, his statements about two of the member countries come at a time when the bloc is preparing for its next twice-yearly summit.
That meeting, which has not yet been scheduled but is expected to take place later this month, is to be hosted by Argentina; at the meeting Brazil will assume the rotating presidency of the bloc, which it will hold until the end of this year.
The next Mercosur summit will address sensitive issues on which there is no consensus, such as the revision of a clause requiring members to jointly negotiate all trade agreements with other countries or blocs, and the reduction of the common external tariff.
In both cases, although with nuances, the country most reluctant to these discussions is Argentina, whose government maintains a more protectionist position with respect to the other three partners and is opposed to freeing up individual trade negotiations, as well as proposing only a minimum reduction in tariffs on imports into the bloc.