Brazilian Senate gives green light to Bolivia’s accession to Mercosur

On Tuesday (28), the Brazilian Senate approved Bolivia’s accession to Mercosur. The vote was symbolic, with only Senators Eduardo Girão (Ceará) and Cleitinho (Minas Gerais) expressing opposition. With Congress’s acceptance, the proposal moves on to the president’s ratification.

The discussion about Bolivia’s potential integration into Mercosur began during the first Lula administration in 2006. In January of the following year, the bloc accepted the neighboring country’s request during a summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Subsequently, a working group was established to determine the terms of integration. Among the mandatory criteria for accession, Bolivia needs to:

• Adopt the Common Nomenclature of Mercosur (NCM)
• Adopt the Common External Tariff (TEC)
• Adopt the Origin Regime of Mercosur

The final agreement took nine years to be signed, finally happening in July 2015 during Dilma’s government. After agreeing to the terms, the parliaments of each member country needed to approve the proposal for Bolivia to become a permanent member of Mercosur.

Only Brazil had not yet signed the acceptance. The parliaments of all Mercosur member countries—Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay—had already agreed to Bolivia’s entry into the bloc.

In his report, Senator Chico Rodrigues (Roraima) stated that approving the proposal is crucial for “expanding” trade in South America. “Equally important is the opening or expansion of the market for Brazilian companies, with the possibility of using cheaper energy, noting that Brazil and Argentina are already Bolivia’s main trading partners,” he said.

The Agreement

The full members of Mercosur are Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Venezuela was part of the bloc but has been suspended since 2017 for failing to meet some obligations outlined in the agreement.

Currently, Bolivia is an associated state of Mercosur, alongside other countries like Chile, Peru, and Colombia.

According to the protocol, Bolivia must gradually adopt the existing normative agreement of Mercosur within a maximum of four years from joining the bloc. Within the same timeframe, the country must adopt Mercosur’s common nomenclature, the common external tariff, and the origin regime of the bloc.

Follow-up

After the vote on Bolivia’s accession to Mercosur, the Senate approved a motion to create a working group with five senators to assess the political and social situation in the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

Senator Cid Gomes (Ceará), the motion’s author, justified that in 2015, one of the criteria for the country’s acceptance into the bloc was to “monitor democratic issues in that country.”

“Due to the identification of democratic procedures essential to the examination of accession to the bloc, it becomes indispensable for parliamentarians to visit and address the concerns raised during the meeting of that Committee,” he stated.

Source: G1

Click here to read the original news article: https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2023/11/28/senado-aprova-e-entrada-da-bolivia-no-mercosul-so-depende-de-ratificacao-por-lula.ghtml

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