The presidents of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou (left);
Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benitez;
and Argentina, Alberto Fernández, during the last summit of Mercosur presidents, held on July 21 in Asunción. Jorge Saenz (AP)
Bad weather in Mercosur.
A few days before the summit of presidents to be held on December 6 in Montevideo, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay have closed ranks against Uruguay.
In a joint letter, published at the same time on the social networks of the respective foreign ministries, the three partners warned the Government of Luis Lacalle Pou that they will no longer tolerate the bilateral negotiations that it is conducting outside the bloc.
The long-standing tension with Montevideo escalated this past week with the tour that Uruguayan Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo is carrying out in Australia and New Zealand to join the Trans-Pacific Agreement.
Mercosur's statutes, which date from 1991, prohibit any of the four members of the bloc from closing extra-zone agreements without the consent of the rest.
"The three countries reserve the right to adopt the measures they deem necessary to defend their interests in the legal and commercial fields," says the joint letter.
For now, it is a threat, the end of an escalation that has taken years due to Uruguay's insistence on opening up to trade from other countries to get rid of the "ballast" of Marcosur, as Lacalle Pou has said on several occasions.
Neither Brazil nor Argentina, the bloc's two largest partners, supported the Uruguayan drift, but it is the first time that they have written that there will be no exceptions with the Uruguayans.
Joint note from the National Coordinators of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay 🇦🇷🇧🇷🇵🇾 before the Mercosur Common Market Group.
pic.twitter.com/JkibS0G1yr
– Argentine Foreign Ministry 🇦🇷 (@CancilleriaARG) November 30, 2022
"Uruguay continues to insist on making Free Trade agreements unilaterally, something prohibited by the Mercosur norm, without consensus within the regional bloc," sources from the Argentine Foreign Ministry told EL PAÍS.
"And none of these Uruguayan announcements were formally raised within the Mercosur institutional framework," they added.
The letter, they have said from the Foreign Ministry in Buenos Aires, "formally explains the right that [Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay] reserve to act legally accordingly if the Uruguayan intentions materialize."
The debate is not new.
Uruguay, as Mercosur's minor partner, complains that the Common External Tariff that applies to partners unnecessarily makes their imports more expensive.
And that the lack of free trade agreements between the bloc and third countries impedes their economic development.
Lacalle Pou considers that his country does not violate any clause when it negotiates without the authorization of its partners, something in which the rest do not agree.
Last December, the Uruguayan president even announced that there was "concrete progress" in a bilateral trade agreement with China.
"In the past, Uruguay has shown interest in unilaterally negotiating trade agreements with third countries, and on all these occasions the response of the other partners has been forceful: 'You cannot be a State Party and have conduct contrary to Mercosur and its members”,
The National Coordinators of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay together with the Common Market Group of MERCOSUL are en route to the National Coordinator of Uruguay, as of today, joint note with the following theory: pic.twitter.com/ajhSfTp1WW
— Itamaraty Brazil 🇧🇷 (@ItamaratyGovBr) November 30, 2022
This new escalation worsens the climate of the summit of presidents organized for Tuesday, when Uruguay will pass the pro tempore presidency to Argentina.
It will also be the last opportunity to participate in an international summit for Jair Bolsonaro, who on January 1 will hand over the ribbon to Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro has not confirmed, however, his presence.
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