MONTEVIDEO, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Uruguayan President Jose Mujica Thursday called for more pragmatism and less bureaucracy within the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), a regional trade bloc composed of five South American nations.
Addressing a gathering of regional business leaders one day before a Mercosur summit in Uruguayan capital Montevideo, Mujica urged the bloc "to be much more practical and have fewer institutions (and) written papers, but to fulfill those they already have."
In his speech at the closing of the 2nd Mercosur Business Forum, Mujica stressed that "we can not get lost in a mass of great intentions."
"When you have to talk so much about free trade, it is because there is no free trade," he added.
On the membership of Paraguay, which has been suspended from the bloc since 2012 after then president Fernando Lugo was impeached by the Paraguayan Congress and removed from office, Mujica said "the door will automatically open to it when the new government takes office."
The 45th Mercosur Summit will be attended by the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, and host Uruguay on Friday.
Chile, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador are Mercosur associate members.
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