Brazil's trade minister said on Monday that the election of pro-business candidate Mauricio Macri as Argentina's next president is good news for trade relations between the South American neighbours.
Macri, the centre-right mayor of Buenos Aires, ended more than a decade of leftist Peronist rule in Sunday's election after promising to overturn the free-spending populism of outgoing President Cristina Fernandez.
"All the signs are positive.
(Macri) reaffirms the vision that Brazil is a strategic partner, he backs the position that Mercosur be more open to other international networks," Trade Minister Armando Monteiro told Reuters while on an official trip to Chile's capital Santiago.
Mercosur is a customs union comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela.