Mercosur commerce is part of the reason that Brazil has been running historical trade surpluses, says the coordinator for Integration at the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Elaine Fontes.
At the moment trade in the block is up 57%, mainly to economic recovery in Argentina. From January to May, Brazilian exports to Argentina total led US$ 43.4 million, an increase of 27% over the same period last year.
Fontes went on to say that Brazil and Mercosur are riding a worldwide tendency to move ahead on multilateral fronts.
“What that means is that multiple agreements can exist side by side, without interfering. A lot of people think the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) will dissolve Mercosur, but that is not true,” she explained.
Fontes pointed out that Mercosur is negotiating various agreements at the moment with a number of countries, such as Canada, Panama and Venezuela, for example.
The big news in Mercosur, says Fontes, are structural funds that will finance infrastructure investments.
ABr