|
 The Mercosur summit in Salvador, capital of the Brazilian northeaster state of Bahia, is having a poor start. Mercosur member countries - Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay - have been unable to reach an agreement in one of the main points of the agenda: the end of double tariff.
The problem, which has been a stumbling issue for years, has to do with eliminating the double tariff on imports from third countries and which are then re-exported inside the block.
At the opening session Monday, December 15, of the Common Market Council, Brazilian Foreign Affairs minister Celso Amorim said he was disappointed because Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay technical groups had failed to reach a consensus on the double tariff system.
"This will bring consequences: it's not only something which we should have left behind long time ago, it will make negotiations with other groups difficult, particularly with the European Union," said Amorim.
The Brazilian minister presided over the Common Market Council deliberations which bring together Mercosur ministers of Economy, Foreign Affairs and central bank authorities.
"We have always accepted that this issue would become a hurdle for negotiations with other countries or economic blocks. The moment we move from negotiations on trade preferences to free market negotiations, we run into the difficulties of not having eliminated this issue," he added.
Double tariff is the act of levying products imported to any country member of the block and again when the product goes to some other member country, "which contradicts the principle of free trade inside the block and makes imports landed in a port of another Mercosur country that much dearer."
The issue is particularly sensitive for Paraguay which since landlocked has no sea access and makes most of its imports through Argentina and Brazil.
"A great effort was done but we didn't manage to achieve it," said Amorim who nevertheless rounded up a full day of deliberations as favorable for other negotiations and anticipated several agreements to be announced Tuesday, December 16, by Mercosur presidents.
Tuesday also promises to be a hectic day because Brazil will be hosting besides the Mercosur presidential summit, a special conference of all Latinamerica and Caribbean countries, 33 in total, (including Guyana, Surinam, Cuba, Mexico and Panama) to consider cooperation in addressing the global financial, energy and food crisis plus the consequences of climate change.
The conference is also expected to address integration as an essential tool to help strengthen "different regional initiatives on the matter," according to the official release from the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The region has been particularly hit by the fall in commodity prices which has fueled strong growth for the last five years. Soaring prices for energy and food have also become a serious challenge.
The meeting reflects the "strong conviction that regional dialogue and cooperation are vital for a better insertion of the region in the international system", underscores the release, adding that "dialogue between heads of state and government represents a unique opportunity to advance with a common agenda."
The Salvador meeting will also host a meeting of the Union of South American Nations, Unasur, which has two thorny issues to address: naming a secretary general and a special report on peasants' killings during the recent revolt in Bolivia.
The region's main political consulting body, the Group of Rio, will celebrate the incorporation of Cuba as a member which will also open the door to Cuban president Raul Castro to regional summits.
Mercopress
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
Our doors are always open for Dr.Raul Castro. Hope he contributes to the welfare of the citizens of this Continent with his words of wisdom.