President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) participates in the Mercosur Summit this Thursday (21) through videoconference, from Brasília, according to information from the analyst at CNN Leandro Magalhaes. The bloc’s leaders are meeting in Asunción, Paraguay.
At first, the Brazilian president would go to the neighboring country, but he ended up giving up, citing agenda issues.
The president is expected to record a video to be shown when the other members will make interventions, after the current presidency of the bloc (temporarily held by Paraguay) takes stock of the activities.
Although the president did not go to the event, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos França, has been in Paraguay since the beginning of the event, on Wednesday (20), representing Brazil.
On the first day of the summit, the representatives announced that the process of negotiating the Free Trade Agreement between Mercosur and Singapore has ended after six rounds started in 2019.
According to information from the bloc, “in 2021, trade between the two sides reached about 7 billion dollars. Among the main Mercosur exports are poultry products, ferroalloys, pork, beef and iron ores”.
Singapore was the sixth main destination for Brazilian exports and the second largest trading partner in Asia (behind China). Trade in goods and services represents about 320% of that country’s GDP.
Among the other topics that will be discussed and publicized at the Mercosur Summit, which started this Wednesday (20), are the reduction of the Common External Tariff. The bloc agreed to ratify a 10% reduction in the TEC, which allows Brazil to maintain an additional 10% reduction until December 2023. The decision brings the tariff levels practiced by Mercosur closer to the average used internationally. The reduction will apply to 87% of the tariff universe and each country will be able to promote the reduction in a flexible way, until 2025.
Source: CNN Brasil
