Brazil's Lula Tries to Steal Bush's Thunder in Uruguay

Written by Newsroom
Sunday, 25 February 2007

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be arriving Monday for a one day fence mending visit to Uruguay where together with President Tabare Vazquez they will be addressing an agenda with several controversial issues.

Although both sides have tried to downplay differences and highlight understandings the fact is that Uruguay claims Mercosur, the South American trade block, has become a two members club, possibly three (Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela) leaving aside from benefits and decision making junior partners Uruguay and Paraguay plus limiting access to their larger markets.
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Brazil is also furious because of Uruguay's attempts to circumvent Mercosur shortcomings by reaching a free trade agreement with United States, which needs the block's consensus to be approved, and on several occasions has warned that if Montevideo insists, "they know the way out and nobody is going to stop them".
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"The presidents will focus on initiatives to strengthen Mercosur, particularly the recently approved eleven infrastructure pilot projects which are to be financed with the Structural Convergence Fund, FOCEM," said Ambassador Felício.

FOCEM is the carrot invented by Brazil to lure junior members Paraguay and Uruguay from flirting with the United States, together with more lax regulations to access larger members' markets.