Uruguayan president Jose Mujica promised on Monday to ‘fight to the death’ for the future of Mercosur in spite of the fact that the group’s junior members Uruguay and Paraguay are suffering the most as Argentina and Brazil implement growing hurdles to trade.
Brazil is Latin America’s fastest-growing travel and tourism economy and direct contribution to GDP is forecast to grow at 7.8% in 2012.
“As of this year Brazil will follow the US example giving a 25% margin of preference to local goods in government procurement”, said Fernando Pimentel, Minister for Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
Drought over Brazil's southern soy growing states prompted analysts Agroconsult to strike 2.8 million tons from its forecast of the 2011/12 crop to 67.1 million tons from 69.9 million previously.
Next April 9 Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is expected in the White House and although formally relations are ‘excellent’, Brazil and the US have many dissenting issues, according to Andres Oppenheimer from the Miami Herald and considered an expert in Latin American affairs from the US perspective.
The Paraguayan government called for “reflection and dialogue” from the Argentine government in order to find a solution to the commercial restrictions in place on imported products, “we don’t need any more walls”.
A Brazilian court barred 17 executives from Chevron and Transocean from leaving Brazil, pending criminal charges related to a high-profile oil spill last November. A second oil spill detected last week further complicated the situation.
Foreign ministers from the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) reaffirmed their support for Argentina over the Malvinas Islands sovereignty dispute at the annual meeting held in Asunción, Paraguay.
Brazilian judge dismissed the first charges ever brought against an army officer over crimes committed during the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship, dealing a blow to rights groups and victims' families.
The European Union and Mercosur concluded Friday in Brussels the eighth round of negotiations for a free trade agreement with the commitment to begin exchanging market access proposals at the next meeting.