07/19/2021 3:55 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 07/19/2021 3:56 PM
Felipe Solá assured that Brazil's "hostile attitudes" "killed" the debate between the two countries and stressed that Argentina is working to preserve Mercosur despite the rigidity demonstrated in the negotiations by the government of President Jair Bolsonaro.
The foreign minister is in Brazil where he participated in the commemorative act for the 30th Anniversary of the creation of the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC), headed by Dr. Elena Maceiras (Argentina). first woman to hold this position in the Agency. The director of the International Atomic Energy Organization, Rafael Grossi, who is also Argentine, also participated in the event. At the ceremony, Solá appealed to the unity of both countries, but made clear the state of bilateral relations in an interview with the newspaper
O Globo.
"Argentina is acting like someone who wants to preserve a marriage, despite what others do,"
the foreign minister said about Mercosur (which Argentina integrates with Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay) in an interview published this Monday.
The main divergence currently between the two countries with respect to Mercosur is the reduction of the tariff on imports, which today is a maximum of 35%, although the average applied is 12%, compared to a global average of 5.5% .
The intention of Brazil and Uruguay is that the ceiling of this rate is reduced to 10%, against which Argentina remains reluctant and advocates more moderate and selective reductions.
Solá accused the Minister of Economy of Brazil, Paulo Guedes, of the rigidity in the negotiations within the bloc and stressed that the reduction of said tariff will not help lower prices in Brazil, and may even increase unemployment and stimulate the closing of companies.
"Brazil defends reducing the TEC (import tariff) without having mechanisms to control the impact of these measures on productive sectors of our countries, it does not take into account the opinion of its industry and the industry of the countries," said Solá, who He affirmed that Mercosur is "asleep."
Asked about the cooling of relations between Brazil and Argentina after the arrival to power of Bolsonaro and his counterpart Alberto Fernández, Solá assured that the interruption of the debate between the commercial partners is due to the "economic vision" and "attitude" of Brazil. although he underlined the importance of the neighboring country.
"With Brazil there is no debate, conversations between ministers, academic debates, between businessmen, unions, fresh debates, all of this is unthinkable. It is as if society did not exist," he declared.
"Hostile attitudes killed the debate," he added.
In that sense, the foreign minister cited the "negative" statements made by President Bolsonaro against Fernández during the presidential elections in Argentina.
"We never thought that this could happen. Then we got used to it and finally the only thing we wanted was not to be insulted. We got used to negotiating despite the circumstances and we will continue to try to negotiate. If Minister Guedes wants to negotiate with us, we are open. Yes. you want to impose without negotiation, that's another thing, "he warned.
This Monday, when mentioning the “pride we have in owning ABACC”, Solá cited Martín Fierro, the national poem written by José Hernández, when he talks about unity: “Brothers be united.
Because that is the first law.
Have true union.
Anytime it was.
Because if they fight each other.
They are eaten by outsiders ”.
The foreign minister headed the delegation made up of Argentina's Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Roberto Salvarezza, and there he also met with the ambassador in Brasilia, Daniel Scioli.