The pandemic is over. Jair Bolsonaro, too. Thus, without excuses, the presidents of the four Mercosur countries will meet this Tuesday for the first time in four years in a face-to-face meeting. Once the times of confinement and virtual summits and Bolsonaro’s ignoring the trade bloc that unites Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay have been overcome, the great challenge is to close once and for all the association agreement with the European Union (EU). .

“In this time of uncertainty, we have to strengthen ourselves as a bloc and narrow the development gaps, because in today’s world we have that challenge as a region and that is achieved through more integration and not less. We are not going to achieve anything if we we disintegrate and isolate ourselves. We need more integration,” said Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, inaugurating this Monday the Summit at the level of foreign ministers.

No one could disagree with Cafiero’s words: the four countries need to reduce development gaps and not isolate themselves. The problem in what Cafiero says is, as is the case with the cumbersome association agreement between Mercosur and the EU, in the “fine print”.

Argentina, which cedes the pro tempore presidency of Mercosur to Brazil at this summit for the next six months, believes that an agreement with the EU “can be an effective vehicle to catalyze investments”, but the government of Alberto Fernández demands to review what was signed between the two blocks in 2018 by former President Mauricio Macri. That was a political agreement that had to be followed by the technical aspects, but what the devil is in the details was confirmed as very true.

“In order to materialize these potentialities and for the agreement to have good results for both parties, it is necessary to work on and update the 2019 texts. The Mercosur-EU Agreement, as it was closed in 2019, reflects an unequal effort between asymmetric blocks and does not respond to the current international scenario,” said Cafiero.

A large part of the responsibility will fall from now on in the hands of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, and Pedro Sánchez, head of the Spanish Government and in charge of the current Presidency of the EU. Both say yes, that the agreement that has been negotiated for 24 years must be closed, but to the usual obstacles in the French agricultural sector and the reluctance of Paris, the dispute over the Amazon is added: Lula does not accept being told from the EU what to do. The renewed environmental demands that the EU raised in a letter sent to Mercosur in March were described as a “threat” by a recent visit to France.

“I am dying to reach an agreement with the European Union. But it is not possible, because your additional letter does not allow an agreement to be reached. We will send our response, but now we have to start discussing. It is not possible for us to have a strategic partnership and there is an additional letter that threatens a strategic partner”, complained Lula, who at 77 years old and in his third presidency has been raising his voice in international forums with opinions and definitions that generate sting in the G7 Foreign Ministries and other countries of weight.

The summit will also make it possible to gauge the situation of Paraguay and Uruguay, the two smallest partners in the bloc. Paraguay will offer an image of political civility, since the delegation is shared by the current president, Mario Abdo Benítez, and the one who will take office on August 15, Santiago Peña. Both are at odds politically, but they are interested in working together to closely monitor a particularly sensitive issue for Asunción, the only South American capital that maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan: China’s power in the region.

Luis Lacalle Pou, the Uruguayan president who embodies the wayward voice at regional summits, wanted to close a free trade agreement with China, something that Argentina stridently opposed and Brazil with discreet effectiveness.

“I cannot verify it, but I imagine that there have been diplomatic efforts with China, both from Argentina and from Brazil to show that they do not look favorably on Uruguay advancing alone,” Lacalle Pou told EL MUNDO during an interview in May. . In effect: Beijing let Montevideo know that it would not risk its relations with Brasilia and Buenos Aires for a country of 3.3 million inhabitants. With the Iguazú Falls as the scenery, this Tuesday’s Summit promises new revelations on the matter.

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