VENEZUELA-BRAZIL: Presidents Take Step Towards Integration

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Marquez

CARACAS, Jul 5 1995 (IPS) - Presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Rafael Caldera of Brazil and Venezuela gave a boost to integration of the Andean Pact and the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), signing accords to strengthen the flourishing ties between their two countries.

“Integration is a complicated process, because it affects legitimate interests that we must compensate, but steps are being taken in the right direction and Brazil maintains an open stance,” Cardoso told a press conference on Tuesday, alongside his host.

One of the documents signed during Cardoso’s 48-hour visit to Venezuela that ended on Wednesday was a declaration by Brazilian Foreign Minister Luis Felipe Lampreia and his Venezuelan counterpart Miguel Angel Burelli outlining the four areas that they will grant the highest priority in Andean Pact-MERCOSUR negotiations.

The first will be “to preserve and expand trade flows between the two countries” – 700 million dollars in 1994 and possibly double that in 1995 – and “immediately initiate negotiations between Venezuela and the MERCOSUR.”

The MERCOSUR’s four member countries – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – will coordinate their commercial relations with each of the five Andean countries – Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela – while the reciprocal concessions already in place will be defended.

The declaration is a commitment by the governments of Caldera and Cardoso to negotiate a free trade area starting in 1996, and with a 10 year deadline, based on the elimination of tariffs and customs duties, and to promote negotiations towards “a common Andean-MERCOSUR framework of norms.”

Meanwhile, “the issues (to be discussed) by Brazil and Venezuela are infinite,” said Caldera. Cardoso humorously mentioned the “numerous problems in common,” while the ministers signed documents prepared by the working groups created to focus on specific areas.

A high-level binational commission had originally been created when former Brazilian President Itamar Franco visited Caracas in March 1994.

Caldera, in office since February 1994, has worked towards a strengthening of ties with Brazil, visited Brasilia in September and participated in its independence day ceremony, a gesture which Cardoso returned on Jul. 5.

Among the accords signed on Tuesday were preliminary agreements between the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela and Petrobras.

Venezuelan exports of crude oil and derivatives to Brazil are projected to reach one billion dollars this year (180,000 barrels a day).

The president of Petroleos de Venezuela, Luis Giusti, said the two companies will undertake joint ventures such as a refinery in northern Brazil that will work with Venezuelan crude oil, as well as joint investments in the development of new oilfields.

Cardoso pointed out that while his country has experience in off-shore exploration, Venezuela has abundant experience in refining, and thus the association with Petroleos de Venezuela would mean a new opportunity for Petrobras.

However, the creation of such an association will first depend on a favourable vote in the Brazilian Senate.

The majority of the other agreements signed are complementary to accords already in effect, in the areas of border cooperation, trade, land transport, mining, iron and steel works and the development of neighbouring regions that lie along tributaries of the powerful Amazon and Orinoco rivers.

Caldera and Cardoso signed the Act of Miraflores – the name of Venezuela’s government headquarters – in which they expressed their satisfaction with the work of committees such as those focusing on border controls, the environment and science and technology, and agreed to create new ones in the areas of telecommunications and planning.

Even cooperation in sports received the presidents’ attention. Brazil agreed to send its Sports Minister, Edson Arantes dos Nascimiento – all-time football hero ‘Pele’ – to Venezuela by December.

They also signed the Caracas Declaration in which they reaffirmed their support for Andean Pact-MERCOSUR integration, and reiterated that integration in the hemisphere must be based on democracy, economic prosperity and social justice.

Venezuela confirmed its support for Brazil’s aspiration to permanent membership on the United Nations Security Council, and it was agreed that Caldera will visit Brasilia in 1996.