Macri and Temer Strengthen Alliance with a View to Mercosur

Buenos Aires –  Argentine President Mauricio Macri made a fleeting visit to his Brazilian counterpart, Michel Temer, with the agenda focused on redoubling bilateral relations and propping up Mercosur in the face of possible trade agreements with other blocs.

It was a stay of a few hours, prepared months in advance, that had its precedent with the trip of Temer to Buenos Aires in October last year.

However, in that short time, they agreed to advance in several points, to renew the commitments to fight against drug trafficking, organized crime, and to open Mercosur, of which Argentina now holds the reins as president pro tempore.

Especially economic agreements between the two countries marked the agenda, taking into account that Brazil is Argentina’s main trading partner, but above all the two leaders emphasized the intention to open Mercosur to the world.

He also considered that there is ‘a huge opportunity’ to advance in agreements with the European Union and the Pacific Alliance based on the new political situation in the United States and the ‘Brexit’ process.

Argentina assumed last December the presidency of that bloc in a Special Meeting of the Council of the Common Market that Venezuela did not have access to, which then was in office and could not finish its mandate after being suspended under the argument of non-compliance with the Protocol of Accession.

Since then, Macri’s government has made clear its intention to prioritize the negotiation of a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, which movements, political and social organizations consider to be against development and regional integration.

Macri and Temer, which analysts consider are today the protagonists of a renewed neoliberalism essay, concretize their alliance and form with these new steps their strategies for the so-called economic opening.