An academic seminar “20 years of Mercosur” will be the main celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the South American trade block, unable to convene political figures from the four full member countries to commemorate the 26 March 1991 founding charter or Asuncion Treaty.
Several South American countries are demanding an immediate cease fire in Libya and questioning the intensity and extensive bombing by an alliance of NATO strike forces of several cities under Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’ control.
Brazil reaffirmed the significance of Mercosur for President Dilma Rousseff administration’s foreign policy and underlined the strategic relation with Argentina, Brazil’s main associate in the trade block.
President Dilma Rousseff will not be visiting Paraguay until the Brazilian Congress approves the Itaipú reversal notes which establish a greater compensation for surplus power purchased from Paraguay by Latin America’s energy hungry largest economy.
Paraguay has a new Foreign Affaire minister, Jorge Lara Castro who until now was Deputy to Hector Lacognata and who had presented his resignation three weeks ago.
“Not even dressed as Father Christmas can president Hugo Chavez make Venezuela become a member of Mercosur”, according to a 2009 Wikileaks cable quoting Paraguay’s Foreign Affairs minister Hector Lacognata during an informal talk with US ambassador in Asuncion Liliana Ayalde.
Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has pressed Ireland’s anxieties about ongoing trade talks with Mercosur with agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos who was most receptive to Ireland’s position, reports the Dublin media.
United States farmers have called on the US government to approve the free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama because Mercosur countries are taking a bigger share of US agriculture exports to those countries.
The Argentine congress ratified this week the free trade agreement between Mercosur and Israel. The accord subscribed in 2007 and already passed by the Senate, was approved in the Lower House by 144 votes, 8 nays and 10 abstentions.
The program of events to celebrate the 20 years of the Treaty of Asunción, the founding block of Mercosur (26 March 1991) will have to be rescheduled because Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff won’t be travelling to Paraguay next 26 March.