At the end of May Mercosur will be ready to exchange tariff-reduction proposals with the European Union, announced Brazilian Industry minister Mauro Borges who also anticipated the trade block would be holding a preparatory meeting next week in Caracas, Venezuela.
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said in a statement that her government ensures sustained economic growth, with contained inflation. The announcement followed market estimates saying that Brazil's GDP expansion this year would be down to 1.63%, below official and private recent estimates above 2%.
Brazil's Sports minister Aldo Rebelo minimized the possibility of violence during the coming World Cup and replied to the British media that the Amazon city of Manaos, where England will be playing a match, will not be riskier that war zones.
With just over a month left for the 2014 World Cup kick off in Brazil, the governor of the state of Sao Paulo launched the Regional Reward program which will pay 55.000 Reales (approximately 22.000 dollars) to anyone providing useful information to help to solve crimes and track perpetrators.
Uruguay and Brazil will be signing this month an agreement to promote the development of Uruguay's naval construction industry, which has been described as one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy, said Industry and Energy minister Roberto Kreimerman in Montevideo during the launching of a barge for the pulp industry.
Uruguay's dairy industry has overtaken Argentina as the main supplier of milk to Brazil, according to Globo Rural, a Brazilian site which specializes in farming news. Brazil's imports were globally 60% Argentine milk and the rest, 40% from Uruguay, but now Uruguay has moved to over 50%, meaning Argentina is losing ground in Latam largest economy and leading Mercosur partner, Anibal Schaller manager of the Milk Industry Center, admitted to Globo Rural.
Brazil's economic and social bank, BNDES, denied it was intent in financing Uruguay's deep sea port on the Atlantic coast, as repeated sources in the Uruguayan government have indicated.
The Brazilian government will raise taxes on beers, sodas and other beverages in a move that will raise an extra 1.5 billion Reais (674 million dollars) in revenue to help meet the fiscal savings goal. Earlier this month, the government had already announced a tax hike on beer to bolster fiscal accounts that have been hit hard over the last three years by rising subsidies, higher spending and an economic slowdown.
A demonstration supporting access to low-cost housing on Wednesday blocked several stretches of the Marginal Tiete, one of the main access routes to Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city and financial capital.
President Dilma Rousseff said on Wednesday she will seek re-election in October, even though some are calling for the return of her popular predecessor president Lula da Silva. Rousseff, who belongs to Lula's Workers Party and was his protegée, said she hoped to have the support of all the parties allied with her government.