The Southern Cone Standing Veterinary Committee, CVP, accused Paraguay of not complying with promises related to foot and mouth disease, FMD, control following on the outbreak reported to the north of the country last September 18.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica arrived Tuesday in Mexico for a two day visit to promote bilateral trade and to address with his host Felipe Calderon issues related to recent discrepancies with the G20 that described Uruguay and Panama as “fiscal havens”.
Mercosur expectations must be lowered and made to prosper in energy integration, infrastructure and trade, said a Uruguayan leading economist adding that without sounding dramatic “we must follow our interests”.
Opposition leaders in Uruguay accused Argentina of “exerting pressure inside the G20 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)” so the neighbouring country would be labelled a “tax haven,” the Montevideo media said.
Spanish media criticized harshly the latest Ibero-American summit in Paraguay last Saturday arguing that the non attendance of 11 of 22 leaders of the region can only be described as a failure of Madrid’s diplomacy and disrespect for the Spanish representatives.
Uruguay’s strategy is to attract foreign private investors and offer the necessary guarantees to develop their business, said President Jose Mujica in a brief summary of his ten day European visit of four countries and the headquarters of the European Union in Brussels.
Uruguay and the European Commission agreed on the importance of promoting economic and investment relations and ratified their commitment to advance negotiations for a Mercosur/EU wide ranging trade and association agreement that is “integral, balanced and ambitious”.
In the current global context “it’s hard to see an advance in the free trade negotiations with the European Union” said on Wednesday the block’s High representative Ambassador Samuel Pinheiro Guimaraes.
In an attempt to accelerate talks on a trilateral free trade agreement (FTA) , the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) summit decided to hold an annual meeting of trade ministers from the three countries beginning from March next year.
The European Union will seek to further discussions over a trade deal with Mercosur at the upcoming G20 summit in Cannes in November announced on Tuesday German Chancellor Angela Merkel alongside visiting Uruguayan president Jose Mujica.