Brazil & Southern Cone - August 2009 (ISSN 1741-4431)
Brazil finds a role for the Mercosur
Brazil signalled that it now sees that its role in the Mercosur is not only to buy natural resources from its partners but also to ensure that they remain politically stable. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva virtually said as much when agreeing the higher prices Brazil will pay for electricity from Itaipú, the hydro-electric dam Brazil co-owns with Paraguay. Brazil also did its bit to help Bolivia, buying textiles and providing satellite services for Bolivia’s anti-drug operations. Brazil’s dominant role in both the Mercosur and regionally has long grated with its smaller neighbours. In the run-up to the recent Mercosur summit in Paraguay (23 and 24 July) Paraguay’s leading newspaper, ABC Color dismissed the Mercosur as “fat, useless and interferingâ€. ABC Color argued that the Mercosur had done nothing to help integrate the Paraguayan economy with the rest of the region, largely because Brazil used the Mercosur for its own purposes.
Brazil signalled that it now sees that its role in the Mercosur is not only to buy natural resources from its partners but also to ensure that they remain politically stable. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva virtually said as much when agreeing the higher prices Brazil will pay for electricity from Itaipú, the hydro-electric dam Brazil co-owns with Paraguay. Brazil also did its bit to help Bolivia, buying textiles and providing satellite services for Bolivia’s anti-drug operations. Brazil’s dominant role in both the Mercosur and regionally has long grated with its smaller neighbours. In the run-up to the recent Mercosur summit in Paraguay (23 and 24 July) Paraguay’s leading newspaper, ABC Color dismissed the Mercosur as “fat, useless and interferingâ€. ABC Color argued that the Mercosur had done nothing to help integrate the Paraguayan economy with the rest of the region, largely because Brazil used the Mercosur for its own purposes.
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