Paulo Guedes said on Monday that his country will not withdraw from the MERCOSUR, while assuring that Brazil "will not accept the bloc becoming an ideological instrument."

The Reuters news agency quoted the Brazilian official saying: "One day Argentina told us that: MERCOSUR is the way it is, and those who are unhappy with it, they can leave...now we will give that back to Argentina, by saying MERCOSUR is going to modernize and whoever is uncomfortable with that, should leave".

Brazil holds the pro tempore presidency of the group that is also integrated by Uruguay and Paraguay. According to the minister, Brazil wants to gradually reduce the Common External Tariff (TEC) of the bloc and the proposal has the support of Paraguay and Uruguay, but not of Argentina. For this reason, the official said that if there is no agreement "it would be advisable for those who are uncomfortable to withdraw from the bloc".