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Brazil, Venezuela Call for Improvement of South American Relations
Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, called for the improvement of regional relations and expressed their stands on the free trade in the Americas after their Tuesday meeting in Brasilia.
In a joint declaration released by the end of the meeting, Cardoso and Chavez announced the coming commercial cooperation between the South American Common Market (Mercosur) and the Andean Community (CAN).
The two presidents described the future agreement between Mercosur and CAN as a fundamental initiative to consolidate the economic space in South America.
Mercosur, the biggest South American commercial bloc, currently groups Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina, while CAN is made up by Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.
On the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, Cardoso and Chavez pronounced the principles of balance, gradualness and progressiveness for the negotiations.
They said it is necessary that the negotiations should consider developmental differences among American economies.
Chavez expressed his hope that Venezuela will be included in Mercosur. "We have made a formal request for our inclusion in Mercosur," he said.
Cardoso said that Brazil will seek support from his Mercosur partners for Venezuela's request.
Chavez and Cardoso said it is their common wish that the two countries will make important progress in political-social and economic-commercial areas during the 3rd Summit of the Americas scheduled for April 20-22 in Quebec, Canada.
Both leaders expressed their satisfaction over Tuesday's meeting and termed it as a show of the realization of high-level political and economic cooperation between the two countries.
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