The situation in Venezuela has become so bad that even soldiers are struggling to support themselves. Over the weekend, six members of the Venezuelan military were detained by local authorities for stealing goats, the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional reported on Sunday. It said the soldiers confessed to stealing the goats and said they did it to feed themselves, since they had no food left in their barracks.
Uruguay's foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa said on Thursday that all agriculture products are included in negotiations for a wide ranging trade and cooperation agreement between Mercosur and the European Union. The chief negotiator for Mercosur underlined that contrary to what was announced by some media, beef and ethanol are included in the proposals exchanged on Wednesday in Brussels between the two blocks.
Suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called the impeachment a ‘coup’, the result of a fraudulent process that ignores the 54 million people who voted for her, but vowed to keep fighting hours after on early Thursday, the Senate voted in favor of her impeachment trial.
After 20 hours of debate, a clear majority in the Brazilian Senate voted on early Thursday morning to suspend Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, an action that removes her temporarily from office and sees her replaced by interim vice-president Michel Temer during her impeachment trial, which in 180 days could see her successor become full president until January 2019.
Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and the Foreign Affairs Minister of Uruguay Rodolfo Nin Novoa, on Wednesday exchanged EU and Mercosur offers on access to their respective markets of goods, services and establishment and government procurement. However this first exchange excluded 'sensitive' items such as beef and ethanol, according to EU sources. The details of the documents exchanged were not made public.
The European Union Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, announced on Tuesday that beef will not be part of the current Mercosur trade deal negotiations. The news follows a meeting between the Commissioner and NFU Cymru, which was held on Glamorgan NFU Cymru Chairman, Abi Reader’s farm, in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment process and possible suspension from office is back on track after the acting speaker of the Lower House, Waldir Maranhao repented and withdrew his controversial decision to annul an April 17 impeachment vote.
A £55.7 million contract to upgrade infrastructure at MPA, in the Falkland Islands was signed this week between Southampton based Trant Engineering Ltd and the UK Defense Infrastructure Organization (DIO).
British Trade and Investment Minister, Lord Price, leads the UK’s first trade mission to Argentina in ten years, which arrived in Buenos Aires on Thursday. The mission looks to strengthen trade and investment relations with the third largest economy of Latin America.
European farmers took to the streets of Dublin outside the EU Commission offices to highlight the potential “sellout” of the multi-billion-euro beef industry in trade talks with Mercosur. Concerns have been rising over discussions at EU level over the impact a deal with Mercosur would have on Ireland's €2.5bn beef industry, which depends on EU markets for over 90% of its exports.