MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mercosur and EU will continue negotiations.

The European Union and Mercosur will continue negotiations leading to an association agreement including free trade, “immediately after” the World Trade Organization meeting scheduled for next week in Cancún, Mexico according to a spokesperson from the European Commission.

Both blocks are interested in a ministerial meeting to agree on the next round of talks to conclude negotiations.

Originally the EU had proposed meeting with Mercosur August 28, before the Cancún summit, but towards the end of July both sides agreed it would be "more useful" to postpone the event until after the WTO meeting, said Pascal Lamy European Trade Commissar.

"We're working on a date for negotiators to meet in Brussels and agree on the schedule of trade rounds", said Mr. Lamy.

The European Commission is still waiting for Mercosur to deliver the matching proposal for the government purchases issue.

Since 2000 the European Union and Mercosur are negotiating an association agreement with the purpose of strengthening political dialogue, cooperation and market liberalization. The first two chapters have been almost reached but the trade negotiation was frozen in 2002.

However since then the process has been more encouraging and both sides have presented proposals in all trade chapters leading to greater market access in the two blocks.

The new timetable for concluding the negotiations is now the Third Latinamerican, Caribbean, European Summit scheduled to take place May 2004 in Mexico.