Brazil & Southern Cone - 27 July 2004
Mercosur: São Paulo vs Lula’s grand scheme
The early-July Mercosur summit in Puerto Iguazú was a high point for President Lula da Silva’s foreign policy. The incorporation as associate members of Venezuela and, most significantly, Mexico showed Brazil’s ‘building-blocks’ approach to regional integration gaining ground as an alternative, or a complement, to the ‘competitive liberalisation’ policy pursued by the US. However, one place where this outcome was not wholeheartedly celebrated was Brazil’s own industrial heartland, namely São Paulo, where many have been openly proclaiming that Mercosul, as it is known in Portuguese, is actually holding Brazil back.
The early-July Mercosur summit in Puerto Iguazú was a high point for President Lula da Silva’s foreign policy. The incorporation as associate members of Venezuela and, most significantly, Mexico showed Brazil’s ‘building-blocks’ approach to regional integration gaining ground as an alternative, or a complement, to the ‘competitive liberalisation’ policy pursued by the US. However, one place where this outcome was not wholeheartedly celebrated was Brazil’s own industrial heartland, namely São Paulo, where many have been openly proclaiming that Mercosul, as it is known in Portuguese, is actually holding Brazil back.
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