556) Assim marcha a integração no Mercosul

Paraguai quer chutar o pau da barraca do Mercosul. Pelo menos é o que parece destas duas matérias de imprensa.


Presidente do Paraguai quer deixar Mercosul e diz que Brasil é 'egoísta e hipócrita'
Folha de São Paulo, 04/07/2006

O presidente paraguaio Nicanor Duarte reclamou do que chamou "egoísmo e hipocrisia" dos dois grandes países do Mercosul, Brasil e Argentina, e disse que pode deixar o bloco econômico e cometer uma "eutanásia" no Mercosul. As declarações foram feitas em entrevista ao jornal "Financial Times".

A saída do Paraguai do Mercosul se daria devido aos desequilíbrios entre os países grandes e os pequenos e pelas supostas atitudes protecionistas de Argentina e Brasil, afirmou Duarte.

"O Mercosul condena o protecionismo dos Estados Unidos e da Europa, mas isso [o protecionismo] não desapareceu entre nós", declara Duarte.

Uma reunião dos chefes de Estado do Mercosul (Brasil, Argentina, Paraguai e Uruguai) será celebrada nesta terça-feira em Caracas por ocasião da cerimônia de adesão da Venezuela, quinto membro do grupo.

"O Paraguai poderia praticar uma eutanásia do Mercosul e deixá-lo declinar, levando em consideração sua impossibilidade de revitalizá-lo", afirmou Duarte.

"Se não existir nenhum meio de melhorar a saúde de nossa economia, de diversificar nossos mercados para permitir que sejamos competitivos, qualquer membro pode desconectar o aparelho que mantém o Mercosul com vida", disse o presidente paraguaio.

Nos dias 20 e 21 de julho será celebrada uma reunião de cúpula de chefes de Estado do Mercosul na província de Córdoba, Argentina.

Com a adesão da Venezuela, o mercado comum sul-americano representará 75% do Produto Interno Bruto (PIB) do continente e 250 milhões de pessoas.

Nos últimos meses, o bloco tem enfrentado críticas e ameaças de se acabar. O presidente do Uruguai também já ameaçou deixar o Mercosul, questionando sua utilidade. O Peru, que está negociando sua associação ao bloco, já divulgou que agora tem dúvidas sobre isso. A imprensa argentina também já questionou se o Mercosul tem futuro.
(Com informações da AFP)

Paraguay threatens to walk out of Mercosur
By Benedict Mander in Asunción
Financial Times, July 3 2006

Paraguay is threatening to leave Mercosur if Brazil and Argentina do not stop protectionist practices or allow bilateral trade deals with countries outside the South American trade bloc.
Without meaningful ref­orm, President Nicanor Duarte Frutos told the Financial Times, Paraguay could “apply the principle of euthanasia [to Mercosur], and let it go, faced with the impossibility of revitalising and mending it”.

Mr Duarte attacked Brazil and Argentina, the dominant pair in Mercosur, of “selfishness and even hypocrisy”. “Together, Mercosur condemns the protectionism of the US and the EU, when the same practices persist amongst us,” he said.
The customs union established 15 years ago has failed to provide the expected benefits to the economies of its smaller members, Mr Duarte said, who wants better access to Brazilian and Argentine markets.
Growing discontent in Paraguay and Uruguay over Mercosur’s asymmetries has also provoked interest in both countries in securing trade agreements with countries such as the US, although this is forbidden under Mercosur’s rules. “If there are no options for our economy to improve, to diversify our markets to allow us to be competitive, any of us could unplug the oxygen apparatus that is keeping Mercosur alive,” Mr Duarte said.
With Mercosur members due to meet in Caracas on Tuesday to discuss the new membership of Venezuela, Mr Duarte also warned that its entry into the bloc could turn it into “a forum for political Manichaeism or the exacerbation of ideological or dogmatic confrontations”.
To assure Paraguay’s support, Mr Duarte called on Venezuela to buy Paraguayan debt as it has done for Argentina, from whom Caracas has now bought more than $3.2bn worth of debt in the last year.
He urged Venezuela to buy bonds from the Itaipú energy project Paraguay shares with Brazil. Itaipú is the world’s second largest hydroelectric plant.
Paraguay owes Eletrobras, the Brazilian state electricity company, $19bn at interest rates of 11 per cent that Asunción considers “exorbitant”. At the Caracas summit Mr Duarte will ask Venezuela to buy bonds worth $3bn at rates of 8 per cent.
Furthermore, calling for a “greater spirit of solidarity” in Mercosur, the Paraguayan president also wants a “profound correction, a historic reparation” with Brazil of the Itaipú Treaty, which he branded “an act of injustice denounced by our people and which Brazil cannot ignore”.
Uruguay’s frustration with Mercosur, in particular with Argentina, reached breaking point this year over a dispute about a $1.7bn pulp mill project. Argentina’s President Néstor Kirchner did little to prevent protesters’ illegal road blocks on bridges linking the two countries, costing Uruguay more than $300m.
The pulp mill dispute has inflamed anti-Mercosur feeling in Uruguay, with many observers calling for it to withdraw from the trade bloc and instead form a trade agreement with the US, which accounts for half of its trade.
But in spite of Mr Duarte’s criticisms of Mercosur, Paraguayans accept that for geographical reasons the country’s destiny is bound to Mercosur. “What would happen if alone Paraguay knocked on the doors of the major European countries or the economic blocs of other regions? I am not sure that Paraguay would have much success without being a part of Mercosur,” he admitted.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006