Venezuela and Brazil Analyze Agenda for Mercosur Integration

President Hugo Chavez welcomed a Brazilian delegation that arrived here to analyze the agenda for integrating Venezuela in the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), a process that seems to be moving ahead at top speed.

The Brazilian delegation, sent by president Dilma Rousseff, pro tempore president of Mercosur, arrived in Caracas led by Brazil's Minister of Development, Industry and Trade, Alessandro Teixeira, and Marco Aurelio Garcia, Presidential Advisor for international affairs.

According to Chavez, the meeting focused on issues such as the acceleration of integration mechanisms and agreement with Mercosur rules, along with the structural development of industry, agroindustry, machinery, investment, telecommunications, trade and the economy in general.

President Chavez stressed the importance for local entrepreneurs of Venezuela's membership in Mercosur, considering that there are more than 200 areas identified so far that might be a source of exports to Brazil.

Among those, he mentioned (petroleum derived) coke, of which 6.5 million tons are annually produced in the Orinoco, an amount similar to what Brazil needs to import in that period.

Mercosur associated countries include Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela, whose full membership will be realized on July 31.