On Friday (2), the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Mercosur countries gathered in Buenos Aires to thin detail before the semiannual meeting of the presidents, which will be on July three in the Argentine capital.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has already confirmed his presence and he and the Argentine president Javier Milei, who are not spoken, will again be in the same meeting room – has already taken place at previous meetings of Mercosur and at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro. According to Itamaraty sources, the climate of the Chancelers meeting on Friday was positive, with the “search for accommodation of legitimate interests”. The president of Argentina had declared, earlier this year, that Mercosur is “a prison” and suggested that his country could leave the block founded for over 30 years.
Milei is a defender of free trade and has reduced import barriers to some sectors of his country, which displeases industrial layers of the Argentine economy. However, despite his strong interest in the United States and his admiration stated by Donald Trump, Milei seems to have given up Argentina out of Mercosur. Two facts were decisive for the turn. Argentina, such as Brazil and other South American countries, is also part of those who have received so -called Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.
At the same time, Mercosur countries (Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) agreed with the possibility of Argentina negotiating a relationship of at least 50 products that would have free trade with the United States.
In this context, several days ago Milei failed to say that her country would leave Mercosur. According to Clarín report in Spanish, published on Monday, the Undersecretary for Commercial Policy and Negotiations of the United States State Department, Robert Garverick, was in Buenos Aires ten days ago, where he met with businessmen and government authorities Milei. The reciprocal tariffs and the list of 50 products would have been the reasons for the visit that was only revealed. And it occurred a few days after the visit of US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who at the time made strong criticisms against China during an interview with Bloomberg news agency and the new US command chief Admiral Almirante Alvin Holsey.
Trump government authorities (Secretary of State, Marco Rubío and Bessent) suggested that Argentina should choose between the United States and China. Argentina has a financial agreement with China, important for the reinforcement of its lean Central Bank reserves, and has just reached a new deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where the US have a decisive vote. A deal for about $ 20 billion that requires privatization and a new social security reform, for example.