Mercosur nations agree on new customs code that will reduce import-export fees and bureaucracy

Mercosur trade bloc agrees to reduce customs fees

SAN JUAN, Argentina — The Mercosur trade bloc agreed Tuesday on a common customs code that should speed up and reduce the cost of commerce across South America.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez announced that she and six other presidents approved the customs regulations in their closed-door meeting.

“It’s an issue we’ve been trying to resolve for a long time, and it’s an achievement for all of us,” Fernandez said, adding that it shows Mercosur is a forum for action and not just talk. “The important thing is that we have agreed on a formula and have overcome all kinds of differences.”

Mercosur has long wanted to eliminate double-taxation and related transport delays on imports that move through one member country to reach another. The common code will be phased in before fully taking effect in 2012.

The effort had been stuck for years as Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay differed over how to distribute a unified import tax among themselves and eventually the associate Mercosur members of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The fine print on dividing up such taxes remains to be worked out, but the four member nations agreed to:

— Eliminate double-taxation of goods imported from outside Mercosur that are shipped as-is through one country to another, starting Jan. 1, 2012

— Eliminate double-taxation of imported goods that receive some added value in one Mercosur nation before reaching another, by 2014.

— Create a single Mercosur customs declaration, unifying terms so that taxes on imports as well as exports can be calculated and shared across Mercosur.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called it the most successful Mercosur summit ever — and chided Venezuela for raising its dispute with Colombia at the trade summit.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro had sought Mercosur support for his country’s position that it is being threatened by U.S.-backed Colombia, which alleges that Venezuela harbors leftist Colombian guerrillas. After other Mercosur members suggested their trade bloc was the wrong venue for discussing the bilateral dispute, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez decided not to attend.

Maduro said Chavez stayed home for health reasons and to “guarantee peace in our country,” and expressed hope that the conflict will be resolved in the coming days as Colombian President-elect Juan Manuel Santos replaces Chavez’s nemesis, Alvaro Uribe.

Silva insisted that bilateral dialogue is the only way for Venezuela and Colombia to resolve their differences, and joked that he, for one, would have no problem sitting down next to Uribe at Santos’ inauguration next week.

South America is a place of peace, even though its countries engage in verbal wars that don’t kill anyone, he said.

Also joining the summit in remote San Juan, nearly 800 miles (1,265 kilometers) west of Buenos Aires, were the presidents of Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, and representatives of Peru, Colombia, Mexico and the United Nations.

Argentina also handed over the rotating Mercosur leadership to Brazil, which will host the next meeting by December in Foz do Iguazu, a city in the triple-border region Brazil shares with Argentina and Paraguay.

Associated Press writer Almudena Calatrava contributed to this report from Buenos Aires, Argentina.