MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
EU and Mercosur to resume free trade talks at two events next January
The European Union and Mercosur will resume talks on a free trade agreement during a coming summit in Brazil and later at a meeting in Santiago de Chile, both in January, according to the EU chief delegate in Brazil, Ana Paula Zacarias. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesThe EU should keep their powder dry as more members of the ALBA basket-cases get added to the countries of Mercosur.
Dec 05th, 2012 - 08:48 am - Link - Report abuse 0'Punch-drunk EU b'eurocrats spend sign up to an unequal treaty with the completely immoral states of Mercosur'. Well done Euro-president (I forgot your name).
Dec 05th, 2012 - 09:12 am - Link - Report abuse 0So can someone remind me again what good these people do?
Argentina has just been ranked 102nd in the world corruption indices with the UK being 17th, why would we want to deal with a corrupt cesspool of crooks like them? The rest of South America isn't much better.
Dec 05th, 2012 - 12:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@3 Yes good news mate, they have fallen two places down to 102nd place and are now sandwiched in between Senegal and Gabon.
Dec 05th, 2012 - 12:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0More good news is that the yanks are hot on their tails with a default looming for 15th and IMF Red Card coming on the 17th December.
God Bless The American Task Force Argentina www.atfa.org/
Mexico has a free-trade agreement with the European Union since 2000. Why is it taking so long with Mercosur? simple, because of Argentina and Brazil´s protectionism.
Dec 05th, 2012 - 12:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0In the end, whatever “free-trade” agreement coming out of EU and Mercosur will thousands of special exemptions and limitations to “protect” special interests, that it will only benefit a few large corporations.
5
Dec 05th, 2012 - 01:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Very true.
OK. If an agreement is signed will Argentina stand by it and comply? Her record on complying with even Mercosur regulations has been brilliant for its continual unilateral abrogations of the rules
Dec 05th, 2012 - 01:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And when the fox gets hungry again,
Dec 05th, 2012 - 01:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The agreements will go out of the window,
CFK should be excluded from all deals until she grows up, complies with the rules, and pays her debts,
And leaves the Falklands alone,
She is breaking every rule in the book,
And the EU still appeases her.
And we will surely pay a high price for dealing with a bad debtor and loser.
.
Look out for a petition on the UK government's “e-petitions” website. The EU's proposed “Association Agreement” includes not only trade but “political” and “co-operation” facets. Let's take a look. How much of LatAm's industrial production is worth having? Most of it is shoddy and falls apart in short order. If you doubt this, list the LatAm products you are eager to go out and buy. Take a look at “agricultural” produce. Plant life sprayed with chemicals banned in Europe. Animals treated with drugs banned in Europe. LatAm produce is a death sentence. Especially as LatAm countries refuse to adhere to European standards. But what about the “political” and “co-operation” elements? WE know what the EU is like. Another tyrannical, dictatorial tie-up? Just look at mercosur. “Politics is more important than charters or rules.” Oh really. A fair percentage of EU member states are already against any trade agreement. Europe, including Britain, is being sold. Contact your MP, your MEP, the Prime Minister, anyone to end these “negotiations”. They are a sell-out to our enemies. Do you want to die while LatAms make money? Remember that they NEVER take responsibility. It's NEVER their fault. DEMAND that this is ended. OR that Britain will take no part. Keep LatAm goods out of Britain. Every purchase is assistance to the enemy!
Dec 05th, 2012 - 02:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Well, what does Europe produce anyway? Not even a decent car anymore, not even a good pop band. Washed up countries with no future whatsoever.
Dec 05th, 2012 - 02:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 09
Dec 05th, 2012 - 03:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0There may be some truth in what you are saying, but it matters not. The EU wants a trade deal to sell more of its good to South America. And if, as you say all S.Am goods are inferior, then you will have nothing to worry about, becasue the sophisticated EU consumer won't buy it, right?
10
Toby,
I would drive almost any European car before an Arg/Brazilian car.
BMW, MERCEDES, VW, JAGUAR, ROLLS ROYCE. PEUGEOT, RENAULT, ALPHA ROMEO, FERRARI. Just off the top of my head. Who the hell would be seen driving one of them!! this guy is a total nut job!
Dec 05th, 2012 - 03:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#10 is a teenage that still lives off moomas titties. I would take too serious much of anything he says. Because he seems to not know the difference between opinions and facts because one can be debated and disputed, the other cannot be debated or disputed.
Dec 05th, 2012 - 03:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@12 Can I add Porsche, Volvo and Skoda to the list.
Dec 05th, 2012 - 05:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I do try to predict what wonders the Argentinian Peoples Motorcar Company is going to dish out under the watchful eyes of La Campora. I'm guessing it's going to be undriveable and a bit sh!t. Probably missing a wheel to add insult to injury.
Did anyone in Europe get to see the shortlived Hugo after the wall fell?
Dec 05th, 2012 - 06:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The “economic gravity” of each of the two regions, is such that some kind of trading relationship will be almost inevitable, market forces will dictate it.
Dec 05th, 2012 - 07:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It will however be more based in raw materials from S. America than anything else, goods and services from the EU. Similar in some ways to S. America and China.
However an EU-Brazil bi-lateral trade agreement is a much more likely (eventual) outcome of all this than an EU-Murcosur agreement.
“Free trade” doesn’t seem to apply in Murcosur, between it and another Block is a completely unworkable suggestion, for reasons too numerious to mention.
Anyway if “No way Jose” is at all involved it will be a complete ClusterF*ck, start to finish.
Don’t expect any result, anytime soon, as in a generational thing.
@10
You may have a point about the “pop bands”
@16 The point about pop-bands is that the spanish speaking population listen to groups called things like 'les paedos' with their songs with roughly translated names like 'i'm going to hang around the school gates in my trenchcoat'. In Argentina they're typically nazis and listen to groups like 'Ich wolle goose schtep you', and 'Were bist du, Fuhrer'.
Dec 05th, 2012 - 07:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I doubt anyone in south america would listen to anything western and/or good.
@14 don't forget Ford (Europe) and of course the Bugatti Veyron, and then Mclaren, Red bull and most of the F1 teams cars that are built and developed in Britain
Dec 05th, 2012 - 09:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Don't forget MG-Rover, Jaguer Land Rover, Jaguer UK, Aston Martin (James Bond), Lamborghini, Lancia, Maserati, Smart and TVR! Apologis if any have been mentioned earlier.
Dec 05th, 2012 - 10:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Perhaps not, but google the Hugo. I think of the Hugo when I think of an Argentine car. Every time I am there and I use a taxi in BA, there are like tin boxes and the drivers are ready to shoot me for slamming the doors as I am used to a heady door on my car. Heavy winds can blow an RG taxi on it's side.
Dec 06th, 2012 - 12:09 am - Link - Report abuse 0The EU doesn' t want manufactured products coming out of Mercosur, they won´t sign agreements to come and shop for airplanes or cars, just like China, they want raw materials, cheap commodities which they can later transform into high-value manufactured products to be sold in Brazil, Argentina and other Mercosur markets.
Dec 06th, 2012 - 01:32 am - Link - Report abuse 0Brazil and other Mercosur nations should pursue a free-trade agreement with the US, to compete for that market against China, EU, Mexico, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and other nations exporting huge volumes of manufactured products to the US and competing to produce better products at lower costs.
Ironically, there was a time when the US approached Brazil and the Mercosur with the idea of a regional, continent-wide free-trade agreement, but populist and demagogues like Hugo Chavez and others got on the way, and Lula and other more moderate leaders never raised their voice against their stupid anti-american agenda.
By aligning to empty-brain ideologies, Mercosur is giving China and other countries a free pass to continue exporting manufactured goods to the US and other markets, while they seek to supply them with the raw-materials they need to do precisely that.
JAM #21
Dec 06th, 2012 - 11:29 am - Link - Report abuse 0'By aligning to empty-brain ideologies, Mercosur is giving China and other countries a free pass to continue exporting manufactured goods to the US and other markets, while they seek to supply them with the raw-materials they need to do precisely that.'
So true,
and it will leave South America denuded of raw materials, with a forever under-developed set of nations.
A continent largely without clear vision or a focussed will to join the modern world.
.................
'... and Lula and other more moderate leaders never raised their voice against their stupid anti-american agenda.'
So, you think Lula was a moderate who was neutral to the USA!
How wrong you proved to be. WikiLeaks again.
22 GeoffWard2,
Dec 06th, 2012 - 03:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I think anyone is moderate compared to Chavez.
Hi Jose, re. #23,
Dec 06th, 2012 - 09:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0just had a look at the USA trading balances and trends with Venezuela and Brasil over the last 10 (Lula/Dilma) years.
It seems that import/export trade is totally independant of the extreme or moderate political positions and invectives from the USA's S.A. trading partners, Venezuela and Brasil.
Venezuela's trade, mainly oil of course, is always and consistently putting the USA in massive trade-deficit ... in spite of the vitriolic anti-US words coming from Chavez.
BIG monies go from the USA to this medium-sized 'developing' country.
Brasil has moved from a USA trade-deficit in the early part of the decade (Lula's years) to a USA trade-surplus (Dilma's years).
The difference is the increasing volume of USA manufactured goods finding its way into Brasil.
Lula had a strong antipathy to the USA and often expressed this; Dilma does not, as Presidenta, express an antipathy but her anti-US position has been fundimental - arguably more so than for Chavez - and the US Establishment know this.
Brasil has had to open its markets to USA/multinational companies in order to 'develop', but it is progressively clamping down on straight imports in favour of the establishment of US industries within Brasil.
A full free trade agreement would be dangerous at this stage of Brasil's development.
Talk-v-action, action-v-talk. Definitely some 'hard-heads' at work - in the USA, in Brasil and in Venezuela. How the 'hard-heads' manage their monies is something else again, of course!
24 GeoffWards
Dec 07th, 2012 - 04:15 am - Link - Report abuse 0Interestingly, Venezuela is actually buying gasolines from the US, because its refineries are old and unproductive due to negligence, bad planning and corruption. It is precisely what happens when governments turn into business entities, except without the incentive to produce better services and products and increase company profits, but rather with the sole objective of manipulating production and profits to fit their special political or person interest or ideologies.
The way I see it, the US is a reliable trade partner willing to buy manufactured goods made a good prices, and unlike China, theirs is a transparent politica and economic system with many checks and balances, unlike China, any politician or treasury official can speak about their fiscal deficits and economic data without reservations of any kind. This is not the case in China, where none can go public talking about China´s banking disaster or their pollution, so none really knows what´s happening there, because they doctor their numbers all the time.
Yup, Jose,
Dec 07th, 2012 - 10:12 am - Link - Report abuse 0both China and the USA play hardball when they try to win S.A. trade in food and mineral raw materials - and both would willingly dump their products at cost or below, but they certainly approach the same endpoint via different national paradigms.
Arguably, China is producing like Britain in their Industrial Revolution. Whereas Britain gained preferential food/raw materials at the point of a big gun, the new levers of power are more economic, more corrupt(?).
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