Brazil and Argentina to negotiate with Uruguay and Paraguay on reducing import duties for non-MERCOSUR products

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The agreement was confirmed by Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos França and his Argentine counterpart Minister Santiago Cafiero in a joint communiqué: “The Ministers reached the necessary consensus to jointly define with the other MERCOSUR partners the scope and characteristics of the Common External Tariff revision.”

“This is an important step towards increasing competitiveness of the States Parties and strengthening regional productive processes, which will promote a beneficial integration of MERCOSUR production in global value chains,” they emphasized in the letter.

Along these lines, it was emphasized that Brazil and Argentina “agreed to work with Paraguay and Uruguay for the prompt approval of a Decision of the Council of the Common Market to reduce by 10% the rates of the majority of customs tariffs, safeguarding the exceptions currently existing within the bloc.”

“The understanding reached considers the different needs of member countries, reflecting MERCOSUR’s capacity to constructively advance towards the updating and adjustment of its tariff structure to the current conditions of regional and world trade in a balanced manner with respect to the productive capacities of the bloc,” the communiqué highlights.

Earlier on Friday, Brazil’s Minister of Economy Paulo Guedes called on the group’s partners to engage in talks. “We want to lower tariffs to 10%,” Guedes said during an event organized by Itaú Bank.

Guedes’ statements came shortly after Urugauy’s president Luis Lacalle Pou assured that his country “is going to trade with the world because it is the progress and leap we must make in the coming years.”

“Uruguay has a role in international organizations where it is present and it has a role in MERCOSUR, and to our partners we say: ‘we are going to open up to the world, we are the granary of the world, we are food producers’,”, assured Lacalle Pou in a speech in Punta del Este.

Brazil’s goal is to change the bloc’s Common External Tariff (TEC), set in 1995 for member states Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, a system that, in Brazil’s view, does not benefit MERCOSUR partners.

In addition, Uruguay and Brazil intend to allow member states to negotiate agreements with other countries or integration platforms individually and not jointly, as is currently required by the bloc’s internal rules.