Mercosur Summit: Javier Milei called for greater commercial openness from the regional bloc

President Javier Milei delivered a speech at the Mercosur summit taking place in Buenos Aires, where he defended a "much freer" trade model in contrast to what he described as an "iron curtain" of the regional bloc, which harmed the countries of the region.

In this context, he called for abandoning what he described as "the destructive inertia" that has characterized the bloc in recent years, and proposed moving toward deeper integration and greater openness to international trade.

During the meeting, Argentina formally transferred the pro tempore presidency of Mercosur to Brazil. Milei's message was interpreted as a veiled reference to the socialist dictator Lula Da Silva, who spoke before him. Although he did not mention him explicitly, the Argentine president warned that he is willing to review the country's participation in the bloc if it doesn't move toward greater economic liberalization.

Javier Milei's speech

"It would be a great joy if in a few years, when Argentina once again has the opportunity to preside over this bloc, we find ourselves in the final stretch to achieve this set of objectives. But if this is not possible and the bloc's partners prefer to resist, to persist on a path that doesn't yield results for us, then we will have to insist on making the partnership conditions that unite us more flexible," Milei stated.

He emphasized: "We will embark on the path of freedom, and we will do so accompanied or alone, because, as I have already said, Argentina can't wait. We need more trade, more economic activity, more investment, and more jobs urgently."

During his analysis, President Javier Milei asserted that Mercosur's current structure "has become bureaucratic, now even elephantine," and criticized that the trade barriers imposed by the bloc "punished our populations with worse goods and services at worse prices," which hindered the region's economic development.

In his speech at the summit of presidents held in Buenos Aires, Milei announced that under Argentine leadership, concrete measures were implemented to move toward greater trade openness. Among them, he mentioned the expansion of the list of exceptions to the common external tariff and a review of said tariff, which he described as "excessively high and detrimental to consumers."

He also highlighted the signing of the agreement between Mercosur and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), emphasizing that this pact "connects Mercosur with a highly competitive bloc whose gross domestic product amounts to 1.5 trillion dollars and has an average per capita GDP close to 95,000 dollars per year."

He also celebrated the relaunch of dialogue with the European Union and mentioned significant progress in negotiations with countries such as India, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Panama, and El Salvador. "Each year that passes without greater trade freedom is a year in which a company can't grow or hire people," the president warned.

Security in the region

One of the key points of his address was regional security. Milei proposed the creation of a Mercosur agency dedicated to combating transnational organized crime, in response to the advance of drug trafficking. "If the Primeiro Comando da Capital and the Comando Vermelho were to spread throughout Mercosur, the entire region will be in danger," he warned.

In another part of his message, he demanded the "immediate release of the Argentine gendarme Nahuel Gallo," kidnapped by Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, and condemned the arbitrary detentions in that country. He also thanked the bloc for its support of the "Special Declaration on the Malvinas issue," reaffirming Argentina's sovereignty over the islands and the surrounding maritime spaces.