
In an effort to handle its overdue debts, Venezuela is all but giving away oil assets. President Nicolás Maduro is reportedly so desperate to pay the US$ 3.7 billion in debts that he is selling off the assets to Russia.

The adulterated meat situation in Brazil is no obstacle for the current trade negotiations between the European Union and Mercosur, said Eidta Hrdá, Managing Director for the Americas from the European External Action Service, currently in Buenos Aires.

First vice-president of the European Union Parliament Irish lawmaker Mairead McGuinness has asked EU Commissioners for agriculture and trade for clarity on allegations that Brazil has sold meat that is unfit for consumption.

Tens of thousands of Argentine teachers marched in the capital Buenos Aires on Wednesday as part of a nationwide strike challenging the administration of President Mauricio Macri. Unions for private and public school teachers are demanding a pay increase of 35% to compensate for Argentina's high inflation in consumer prices.

Argentina's economy exited a prolonged recession in the second half of last year, with government data on Tuesday showing a 0.5% expansion in the fourth quarter of 2016 compared with the third quarter. Indec stats agency also revised its estimate for third-quarter GDP to a 0.1% increase over the second quarter, up from a 0.2% decline previously. Taken together, the data show Argentina's economy grew in the second half after shrinking for three straight quarters.

Argentina has the potential to increase food sales to the UK by 28% in the short term, from the current US$ 830 million to US$ 1.060bn, according to the president of the powerful farmers' organization, Argentine Rural Society, Luis Miguel Etchevehere, currently in London with a business mission sponsored by the Argentine foreign ministry, the Argentine-British Chamber of Commerce and the embassy in London.

United States oil giant Exxon Mobil Corporation is moving full steam ahead with plans to transform Guyana, in the north of South America, into a major oil producer. In what industry experts call a rare occurrence in the industry, Exxon Mobil has asked the David Granger administration for a production license to start pumping oil from the country’s seabed, less than five years after it discovered major oil finds.

European Union has insisted Brazilian representatives attend an emergency meeting to explain themselves regarding a scandal involving rotten meat and the country’s two largest exporters, JBS and BRF. Brazil has already announced that the 22 plants (out of over 4.000) allegedly involved in the scam have been closed.

Goldman Sachs will move jobs away from London and bulk up its European presence by “hundreds of people”, a senior executive has said. The US bank's European chief executive, Richard Gnodde, said it would begin the process before the UK leaves the European Union.

The fallout from Brazil's rotten meat scandal accelerated Monday when China, a huge market, suspended imports and the European Union and South Korea demanded a partial ban. Another ban on Brazilian meat imposed by Chile sparked fears of a trade spat between the two South American partners.