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Argentina, Brazil pledge to strengthen Mercosur

Xinhua, October 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

Argentine President Mauricio Macri and his Brazilian counterpart Michel Temer said Monday that the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) needed to be strengthened in order to become a platform of global commercial integration.

During a state visit to Argentina, Temer met with Macri in the presidential residence of Olivos near Buenos Aires, where the two leaders issued a joint statement.

Macri said that in a globalized world full of challenges, strengthening Mercosur will help Argentina and Brazil ensure a better integration with the world.

Mercosur is composed of the two countries, which are South America's two largest economies, along with Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela.

According to Macri, Brazil and Argentina are both committed to reducing poverty, improving education and creating quality jobs.

"There are many things we can collaborate on to accelerate exchanges between our countries," continued Macri.

Bilateral trade between the two countries reached over 23 billion U.S. dollars in 2015 and stood at around 14 billion dollars in the first eight months of this year.

For his part, Temer highlighted "the historic links" uniting both countries and "the unity of positions" between the two governments.

He added that strengthening Mercosur could help fulfill one of the bloc's aims since its foundation, namely signing a free trade agreement with the EU.

Temer also called on Mercosur to "make its rules a little more flexible and give more flexibility to its members."

Both men also mentioned Venezuela, which has declared it holds the rotating presidency of Mercosur, a claim rejected by other members.

In terms of Venezuela, both leaders warned that Venezuela had been given a timeline to comply with Mercosur membership protocols and that it could lose its membership status if it failed to comply. Endi