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News > Brazil

'Brazil to Leave Mercosur if Cristina Wins', Minister Guedes

  • Economy Minister Paulo Guedes at an investors meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 8, 2019.

    Economy Minister Paulo Guedes at an investors meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 8, 2019. | Photo: Reuters

Published 16 August 2019
Opinion

The Brazilian right regards Mercosur as an instrument for its company's international insertion.

Brazil's Economic Minister Paulo Guedes threatened Thursday to leave Mercosur if Alberto Fernandez and Cristina Fernandez win the second round of the Argentinean presidential elections on October 27.

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"Mercosur is, of course, a vehicle of Brazil´s insertion into international markets. But, what if Cristina Kirchner enters and closes her economy? If they want to close it, we will leave Mercosur. If she wants to leave it open? Well, we will continue," Guedes said during an event with investors held in Sao Paulo.

Besides insinuating he is not worried about the Argentinean economic crisis, Minister Guedes downplayed the economic relationship with Argentina, a country which is actually Brazil's third largest trading partner.

"Since when has Brazil needed Argentina to grow?", Guedes said arrogantly, although he tried to soften his claims by saying that "Brazil is a continental economy and we need to recover our own momentum to growth. We do not depend so much on others."

These statements mimic those made by the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro who has been "warning" about the possible consequences of the return of the Argentinean left to power could have.

"Look at what is happening in Argentina now. Argentina is sinking into chaos. Argentina begins to follow the course of Venezuela because, in the presidential primaries, the left-wing bandits began to return to power," Bolsonaro said in the city of Parnaiba.

In the presidential primaries held in Argentina on August 11, Alberto Fernandez, whose vice presidential candidate is former President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner (2007-2015), achieved a 15 percent advantage over president Mauricio Macri, a right-wing politician who has received explicit support from his colleague Bolsonaro. 

Currently, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay are integrating Mercosur, a commercial block which recently concluded the negotiations of a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union (EU). In the near future, if the Brazilian government leaves Mercosur, this agreement would also enter into crisis.

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