Venezuela’s Triumph in Mercosur
YES! are we about to see a counterforce to the "beloved" NAFTA??
i hope so!
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“Venezuela will be a fundamental element in giving Mercosur a new dimension.” - Lula da Silva
“for Argentina it is not only an honor, it is above all a necessity to have Venezuela with us, so as to deepen the changes that we want to bring about.” - Nestor Kirchner
Puerto Iguazú, Argentina, July 8, 2004—Finally, after eight years, five protocols, and a decade of applications and frustrated attempts, Venezuela joins the Common Market of the South (Mercosur). Venezuela was admitted as “associate member” number four, this July 8, during a marathon meeting of the presidents’ summit that took place in the Argentinean city of Puerto Iguazú, on the border with Brazil and Paraguay.
Mexico received “observer status” in Mercosur, while the small print is fixed, which would allow it to join as well.
For the government of the “Bolivarian Revolution” this is a political and diplomatic triumph, perhaps its most important since the reconstruction of OPEC, between 1999 and 2000. The best expression of this reality we received from a high official in the Argentinean foreign ministry, who told us, off the record, “Now what will they accuse Venezuela of? It is our ally in Mercosur. We will not forget the generosity of its supply of gasoline our energy crisis this past February.”
This is enough to make sense of the happy faces of the participating heads of state in Iguazú, who refuse to support the isolation that the U.S. is submitting Venezuela to in the United Nations, the OAS, and the international media.
The entry of Venezuela into Mercosur is more valuable diplomatically, at this moment, than its membership in the OAS, where the U.S. would like to isolate Venezuela with the Democratic Charter.
The membership institutionalizes, in a sub-regional context, Venezuela’s tight new economic and political relations with Brazil and Argentina. The doubling of trade with Argentina and the tripling with Brazil will be sustained from now on a supra-state level.
Chavez summed up this new institutional reality in a phrase with strategic content: “We want to see in our ships, in our pipes, in our medicines, and in other goods the words, ‘Made in Argentina’ or Made in Brazil’ instead of ‘Made in the U.S.A.’”
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Finally, the president announced that the $4 billion that PDVSA must pay in valves, components, and replacement parts for its industry, within the “Plan PDVSA 2005-2012,” whose total amount is $37 billion, will be offered to Argentinean and Brazilian businesses. “For this we joined Mercosur, in order to liberate us of the North,” proclaimed Chavez.
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i hope so!
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“Venezuela will be a fundamental element in giving Mercosur a new dimension.” - Lula da Silva
“for Argentina it is not only an honor, it is above all a necessity to have Venezuela with us, so as to deepen the changes that we want to bring about.” - Nestor Kirchner
Puerto Iguazú, Argentina, July 8, 2004—Finally, after eight years, five protocols, and a decade of applications and frustrated attempts, Venezuela joins the Common Market of the South (Mercosur). Venezuela was admitted as “associate member” number four, this July 8, during a marathon meeting of the presidents’ summit that took place in the Argentinean city of Puerto Iguazú, on the border with Brazil and Paraguay.
Mexico received “observer status” in Mercosur, while the small print is fixed, which would allow it to join as well.
For the government of the “Bolivarian Revolution” this is a political and diplomatic triumph, perhaps its most important since the reconstruction of OPEC, between 1999 and 2000. The best expression of this reality we received from a high official in the Argentinean foreign ministry, who told us, off the record, “Now what will they accuse Venezuela of? It is our ally in Mercosur. We will not forget the generosity of its supply of gasoline our energy crisis this past February.”
This is enough to make sense of the happy faces of the participating heads of state in Iguazú, who refuse to support the isolation that the U.S. is submitting Venezuela to in the United Nations, the OAS, and the international media.
The entry of Venezuela into Mercosur is more valuable diplomatically, at this moment, than its membership in the OAS, where the U.S. would like to isolate Venezuela with the Democratic Charter.
The membership institutionalizes, in a sub-regional context, Venezuela’s tight new economic and political relations with Brazil and Argentina. The doubling of trade with Argentina and the tripling with Brazil will be sustained from now on a supra-state level.
Chavez summed up this new institutional reality in a phrase with strategic content: “We want to see in our ships, in our pipes, in our medicines, and in other goods the words, ‘Made in Argentina’ or Made in Brazil’ instead of ‘Made in the U.S.A.’”
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Finally, the president announced that the $4 billion that PDVSA must pay in valves, components, and replacement parts for its industry, within the “Plan PDVSA 2005-2012,” whose total amount is $37 billion, will be offered to Argentinean and Brazilian businesses. “For this we joined Mercosur, in order to liberate us of the North,” proclaimed Chavez.
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