Foreign minister Santiago Cafiero is opening an ordinary meeting of Mercosur trade bloc’s common market council at 10 a.m. on Monday in Puerto Iguazú, Misiones province. The meeting is a prelude to Tuesday’s summit for heads of state of Mercosur countries and associate states. 

The meeting marks the transfer of Mercosur’s pro tempore presidency from Argentina to Brazil.

Cafiero and his counterparts from the four member states and Bolivia will attend the common market council ordinary meeting from 3 p.m., where they will be joined by associate states and special guests. National economy ministers and central bank chiefs will hold a meeting in parallel, which presidential hopeful for ruling coalition Unión por la Patria, Economy Minister Sergio Massa, will attend.

The plenary session for heads of state will take place on Tuesday from 10:30 a.m., led by President Alberto Fernández and his counterparts, according to Argentina’s Foreign Ministry. The Paraguayan delegation will include outgoing President Mario Abdo and President-Elect Santiago Peña, who will take office in August.

Argentine officials will present the country’s work as pro tempore president in the first six months of the year. This includes the bloc’s Economic and Social Forum and the tenth Mercosur Business Forum, whose central topics included biotech, gender and trade; the transition towards sustainable vehicles; medical equipment production and drug development, and audiovisual advertising services.

Mercosur is an economic bloc comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Venezuela was suspended from the bloc in 2017. Bolivia is in the process of joining, and all other South American countries are associate states. 

-Télam/Herald