MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Asean and Mercosur explore possible trade expansion

Asean and Mercosur representatives are meeting Monday in Brasilia to explore new venues of promoting trade and investments according to a release from the Brazilian Foreign Affairs ministry. This is the first time the two blocks as such meet.

The Association of South East Asian Nations is participating with representatives from Brunei, Cambodia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. "We're talking of two blocks which belong to developing regions that had never had formal meetings. There's no previous agenda, we have to build on one so it's basically an approximation meeting", said Brazilian sources. Trade between Mercosur and Asean countries reached 11.7 billion US dollars in 2007 and during the first meeting is to identify areas of possible trade expansion. Asean has a population of 575 million and a GDP equivalent to 1.2 trillion US dollars. "This is the beginning of a structured dialogue", added Brazilian sources.