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35 AutoData | May 2018 According to him, Brazil and Argentina are currently discussing harmonization of technical standards for safety, emissions and fuels: “We need tomove forward in this technical convergence. It’s easier in safety, in emissions a little more complex”. For Megale it is necessary to resolve, in a definitive way, the competitiveness in Mercosur, in the name of advancing global competition. Adefa, Argentine’s equivalent to Anfa- vea, also attended the seminar with a lec- ture by its vice president, Daniel Herrero. For him, there is an “absolute need” to unify the Brazilian andArgentine automotive sectors as a way to prepare for free trade with the European Union, anxiously awaited: “Reforms need to bemade in both coun- tries to make industries more competitive and prepared to compete in the Europe- an market. Today we have many internal problems in the two markets that must be resolved”. According to Herrero, the Argentine government is already studying ways to solve the tax and competitive problems of its industry and believes that in the future, with the resolution of these problems and the unification of the productive processes of the countries, the production of vehi- cles in Latin America will be able to reach 7 million units. Dan Ioschpe, chairman of Sindipeças, also a speaker, said he believes that the integration of the automotive sector inMer- cosur must occur before the moment of the obligation of greater competitiveness arrives: “In the past, the sector tried to seek more competitiveness and then to think about integration, and this did not happe- ned. We bet on our ability to improve our competitiveness during integration”. He understands that harmonization of rules “has to happen as soon as possible because there are processes that can be unified and that will raise the level of both industries”. MDIC, Ministryof Industry, ForeignTrade and Services, participated in the seminar with its secretary of development and in- dustrial competitiveness, Igor Calvet. He said a Brazil-Argentina regulatory conver- gence agreement to establish common safety and emissions standards should be ready by the mid-year of 2018. During his presentation Calvet said that integrationwithArgentina is necessary, but not sufficient: “Models such as the flex agreement cannot be restrictive or, otherwise, can ge- nerate imbalances.Wewill onlybe compe- titivewhenwe have conditions andmarket opening. In general, countries do not want a free market”. He also said that Rota 2030 represents “a coordination of efforts from the sector” and “a commitment of the governmentwith the country”. Besides that “the perception of what happens in theworld, of new tren- ds, is fundamental for those who, like me, need to make effective decisions. Clearly we observe productive capacity and great idleness. Nowwe are resuming growth and we need to be able to engage the market nicelywith good and competitive actions”. For him “any worthy policy needs to meet two assumptions: to be connected to the great trends of theworld and to pro- mote structural change in our economy”. He also said: “From the structural point of view a change of the level of our research and development is needed or we will stay where we are”. THIS YEAR Independent of the obstacles, conversa- tions and negotiations General Motors will launch this year a Mercosur Car, as Carlos Zarlenga, President of GeneralMotorsMer- cosur, has defined and promised a structure that completely unified operations in both countries. For him, also speaker of the AutoData event, the best way to show how much Brazil and Argentina are united in the con- vergence proposal is to have a common product. The executive said in his presentation that the automotive unification of Brazil and Argentina should be, firstly, amutual recog- nition to become global later: