Brasilia, Jul 30 (Prensa Latina) The presidents of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez, Uruguay, Jose Mujica, and Venezuela, Hugo Chavez will arrive today to Brasilia to participate in a MERCOSUR Extraordinary Summit, scheduled for tomorrow, with their Brazilian colleague Dilma Rousseff. The top meeting of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) will formalize Venezuela’s entry into the regional block, six years after it was passed that membership, but had failed to materialize by the refusal of the Paraguayan parliament.
On June 28, in Mendoza, Argentina, the presidents of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay agreed to suspend Paraguay from MERCOSUR considering that the summary dismissal of the constitutional president of that country, Fernando Lugo, violated democratic norms established by the regional group.
Fernandez, Rousseff and Mujica decided to approve the entry of Venezuela into MERCOSUR and they scheduled for July 31, the meeting to formalize that inclusion, with which the economic block will be strengthened and it will become the largest holder of fuel oil reserves from the planet.
For Monday afternoon, it is scheduled an informal reunion of chancellors from the four countries as well as a working meeting with experts and technicians where they will agree the terms and define the Common External Tariff.
This ruling seeks to encourage the competitiveness of the country members and prevent the formation of oligopolies and market reserves with criteria for small number of aliquots, low dispersion and homogeneity of export and import rates.
MERCOSUR was founded in 1991 with the purpose to strengthen the regional integration and boost the alliances between the members of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay (suspended) and Uruguay.
Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia are associate states while Mexico and New Zealand are observers