The former president of Argentina, Eduardo Duhalde, was elected, on October 6, the president of the Permanent Mercosur Representative Commission. Approved by the Ministerial Commission, Duhalde will take the position over in December and will be Mercosur's international representative. The Uruguayan chancellor, Didier Opertti, made the announcement of Duhalde's indication shortly before the Common Market Council meeting. The Council is composed by the Foreign Relations and Finance Ministers of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. During the meeting, the ministers discussed how to treat the economic asymmetries between the four member countries and the Mercosur foreign relations, among which the post-Cancun negotiations with the European Union and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) round which was recently held in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Brazilian proposal, called "Objective 2006", that includes the creation of a common regional Parliament, will also be one of the important points the Common Market Council will analyze, said Opertti. However, not everyone agrees with the idea. The former president of Uruguay, Luis Alberto Lacalle, rejected the creation of a Mercosur Parliament and guaranteed that if such an idea had been presented while he was the president, he would not have allowed his country to enter the block.

"We wouldn't have entered the Mercosur if there had been an association that was similar to the European Union," claimed Lacalle, who is in Asuncion for a seminar. Lacalle, who represented his country in the Asuncion Treaty, signed in 1991 and which gave rise to the block formed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, claimed to be "opposed" to the idea Brazil suggested and Argentina supported "since it is inconvenient and impertinent."

Sources: Gazeta Mercantil/Caderno A10, EFE and International agencies