
The European Union and Brazil representing Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), are proposing the World Trade Organization agree to end agricultural export subsidies at a meeting next month. The proposal backers also include New Zealand.

Argentina's much-watched soybean sowings will set a record this season, but the country is heading for a weaker wheat harvest, despite ideas of very good yields, the country's farm ministry said. In its first estimate the ministry said soybean sowings for 2015-16, pegged area at 20.6m hectares, a rise of 800,000 hectares year on year.

Earlier on Friday a key Petrobras workers union voted to end a 20-day strike that disrupted output. Workers at the Sindipetro Norte Fluminense local, who had ignored the largest oil workers' union FUP's call to end the strike that started on November first, will return to work Friday evening at onshore operations, union spokesman Tezeu Bezerra.

Economic activity in Brazil contracted for the fourth straight quarter, central bank data showed this week as Latin America's biggest economy plunges further into recession. The bank's IBC-Br economic activity index indicates economic activity fell 1.41% in the third quarter from the previous three months.

A slowdown in China, which gobbled up raw materials everywhere from Australia to Chile, exacerbated a supply glut in most major commodities. And Goldman Sachs thinks the pressure is likely to persist as it noted its underweight position in commodities for the next 12 months.

Brazil’s government is considering a debt plan to bolster the capital of heavily indebted state-controlled oil Petrobras, Agencia Estado news agency reported on Thursday. Under the plan, the Brazilian Treasury would transfer so-called hybrid securities to Petrobras, which would then book the securities as equity until it sold new stock, Estado reported.

Brazil's oil company Petrobras has concluded negotiations with international export credit agencies (ECAs) for a total of US$1.84bn. According to a company statement. The financing will contribute towards its fundraising efforts for 2016.

Argentina will likely end the year with a fiscal deficit of 3.5% of GDP, Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said on Wednesday, rejecting estimates by the opposition for a deficit around twice as high.

Brazil's Congress has upheld President Dilma Rousseff's vetoes of two bills to raise public spending, a victory for the embattled leader as she tries to close a gaping fiscal deficit and regain investors' confidence.

Paraguay's foreign minister Eladio Loizaga is in Brussels holding a round of talks with different European Union officials regarding the trade and cooperation agreement with Mercosur, while in Brazil Industry and foreign trade minister Armando Monteiro announced that Mercosur was finally ready to advance with a wide range proposal.