Luis Lacalle Pou and Jair Bolsonaro Meet, Agree on Need to “Flexibilize” MERCOSUR

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou was welcomed on Wednesday, February 3rd, in Brasilia by his counterpart Jair Bolsonaro, with whom he agreed on the need to “make MERCOSUR more flexible” and allow each member country to conduct its own trade negotiations.

“We belong to MERCOSUR and we are about to celebrate 30 years of membership in this association”, for which “the next step in this modern world is flexibilization”, so that each member “may advance” its own trade agreements, which is currently banned, said Lacalle Pou alongside Bolsonaro, who agreed on this point.

The issue, as implied by Bolsonaro, could be discussed with the presidents of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, and Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez, at a meeting of the four leaders that has not yet been confirmed but should take place on March 26th, the 30th anniversary of the signing of the bloc’s founding treaty.

The two leaders, along with several of their officials, had a private meeting at the Alvorada Palace, Bolsonaro’s official residence, from where they later traveled to the Presidential Office for a brief statement to the press.

They explained that in a bilateral context, they discussed infrastructure and energy projects which are also regional in nature.

Among them, Lacalle Pou mentioned the development of a waterway on the Uruguay River, a project which, according to him, “could benefit” his own country, but also the south of Brazil and Argentina, with whose President, Alberto Fernández, he has already discussed the topic.

Furthermore, the project for the construction of a second border bridge over the Yaguarón River was discussed, an initiative which, according to both governments, could boost trade and tourism between the two countries and even within MERCOSUR as a whole.

Lacalle Pou stressed that there is “a very large agenda” between Brazil and Uruguay that will continue to be addressed by both governments and stressed the common understanding he had found in President Bolsonaro.

“I am returning to my country with the news that we have concurred on a tremendous number of topics, which are the freedom of our peoples, the prosperity of our peoples and, of course, the good relationship and fellowship between Uruguay and Brazil,” he said.

Although the leaders made little reference to the matter, official sources said that the health crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, with Brazil as one of the most affected countries and Uruguay as one of the regional models in the fight against the disease, was also discussed.

Brazil, with 210 million inhabitants, records over 9.3 million cases and more than 226,000 deaths. Uruguay, with a population of 3.5 million people, records only 42,000 infections and just over 450 deaths.

Uruguayan authorities are particularly concerned with border areas and the emergence of the new Amazonas coronavirus strain, yet they have partially reopened borders with Brazil, where citizens from both countries travel virtually unrestricted.

Uruguay has stated it has an agreement for the purchase of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, which is developed by São Paulo’s Butantan Institute; the institute has not confirmed this information, as its initial production is reserved for the Brazilian government.

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