Brazil admits trade negotiation process wih Argentina 'will be slow'

Official Brazilian sources assured that “the road back to a normalization of bilateral trade will be slow and hinges on the future meetings between both countries, since they were not able to solve their differences this week.” 

“Negotiations are set to continue in Brasilia, where officials have agreed to meet again in one or two weeks. During the meeting in Buenos Aires they made some progress but they could not agree on eliminating their policies on non-automatic licenses,” a spokesman from the Brazilian Foreign Trade Ministry said.

Differences between the two large Mercosur partners arose two weeks ago when Brazil decided to impose their non-automatic licenses on any vehicles entering the country, a measure that mainly affected Argentina. 

“A release on the vehicles stopped at the border continues to be gradual. Brazil has sped up the licensing for many vehicles and Argentina has replied by gradually allowing for the entry of food, tires, tractors, harvesters, shows and other products awaiting authorization,” the spokesman said.

The same source rejected that the Brazilian Government was willing to impose “export voluntary shipments” to Argentina, as a way to overcome their differences. 

Despite the bilateral restrictions, which are still being enforced, Brazilian Development, Industry and Foreign Trade Minister, Fernando Pimentel rejected that the agreements reached “were a failure.”

“There was a lot of negotiating. We moved forward in order to get to know where each one of us stands. It wasn’t a failure, it’s an ongoing negotiation. We could never solve our differences in just one meeting,” Pimentel concluded.