Brazil does not rule out the China-Mercosur trade agreement that Uruguay wants

Brazil sees a Free Trade Agreement between Mercosur and China as “possible”. During his visit to Uruguay, the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has shown himself willing to “talk” with the Asian country about an agreement that Uruguay has already pursued bilaterally despite the opposition of the group formed by Brazil , Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

“We belong to Mercosur and we have this Unchanged vocation: modern, flexible and open to the world“, insisted the president of Uruguay Luis Lacalle Pou.

Although Lula supports the idea with nuances and insisted on the urgency and importance of Mercosur reaching an agreement with the EU. To this he said, “intensify talks with the European Union and they will materialize this agreement so that later we can talk about a possible China-Mercosur agreement”.

The EU reached a trade pact in 2019 with Mercosur after 20 years of negotiations, but it has not yet been ratified.

Uruguay had been advocating for greater flexibility within Mercosur for years, but its independent negotiations with China threatened to break the bloc.

Lula’s official visit to Uruguay ended with a warm meeting at the residence of former President Mujica in which Lula conveyed “his bitterness for the state of Brazil.”

“In Brazil there was no dispute between the right and the left: it is false. The real lawsuit is democracy with respect or authoritarianismJose Mujica said.

For Mujica, there is a lot to do that he does not have to separate between the left and the right. And he celebrated the Brazilian president’s intention to “open up to the world” because, he says, “the global interest” of Latin America must be defended.

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