Featured image: Flag of Mercosur. File photo.
During his visit to Spain as part of President Lula Da Silva’s Europe tour, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said that he is expecting Bolivia’s incorporation and Venezuela’s re-entry into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur).
Vieira stated at a joint press conference with the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation José Manuel Albares held on Wednesday, April 26, that Mercosur is finalizing Bolivia’s entry and that he expects Venezuela to be able to return to the bloc in the next 12 months at most, after being suspended by US-aligned right-wing governments in 2017.
According to the Brazilian minister, the incorporation of Bolivia and the return of Venezuela to Mercosur would grant energy-related influence to the South American integration mechanism, thanks to Bolivian gas and Venezuelan oil.
The Foreign Trade Technical Report 2021 of Mercosur states that “Mercosur’s trade exchange with the world in 2021 was $598,899,000, an increase of 37% in relation to 2020. Exports represented 57% and imports 43% of that exchange.”
The induction of Bolivia and Venezuela into the Mercosur would increase the bloc’s participation in both regional and world trade, in a geopolitical and geo-economic context characterized by the global powers’ dispute over raw materials and profound shifts in power and hegemony.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/KZ
Misión Verdad
Misión Verdad is a Venezuelan investigative journalism website with a socialist perspective in defense of the Bolivarian Revolution
