My point is that we haven't had a very good relationship with Brazil. In the past I think we've underestimated the importance of Brazil, and we haven't taken opportunities to get closer to them, and there have been some short-sighted trade conflicts with Brazil and with some of the other states. I don't see the advantage of entering more deeply into a regional formation where it is going to be very difficult to reach an agreement and it would take a long time to get an agreement with them. We might be spinning our wheels for several years trying to do that, while maybe there are much more practical short-term things we could be doing to improve our trade and economic relationships with all of the countries of the region.
On April 15th, 2013. See this statement in context.