
Argentina's most southern province identified as Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic islands is redesigning its internal political limits with the purpose of contributing to the territorial sovereignty of the Nation, according to a bill sent to the provincial legislative by governor Fabiana Ríos and drafted with help from the Malvinas Question Advisory Observatory.

Argentina's foreign policy, under president Cristina Fernández, has new priorities, China and Russia, according to columnist Joaquin Morales Solá, one of the outstanding political analysts of Argentina. This means a radical change from democratic Argentina (since 1983) when the interests of the country were targeted in Latin America, particularly Brazil, Europe and the US, although the importance of the short list varied according to the different elected presidents.

Spanish construction company Sacyr joined Uruguay's Grinor in a consortium bidding for a contract to recover and maintain highways in the Mercosur member country.

Mercosur is being left out of the main global trade flows since it only belongs to 1% of free trade treaties or tariff preference agreements, which actually represent half of world trade, said Uruguay's foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa during a conference on Education and regional integration.

Uruguay's Economy minister Danilo Astori warned about the new regional and international context, not so favorable to his country's interests as in recent years, and underlined that Mercosur is going through one of its worst moments since foundation in 1991.

Argentina’s central bank governor Alejandro Vanoli said that despite the continued erosion of the Brazilian currency against the US dollar, which ended the week trading at 3.28 Real to the greenback, monetary policy will continue to manage the foreign exchange to avoid volatility and ensure economic growth.

Fresh from an incident with Venezuela which delayed and displaced a Unasur meeting, the Uruguayan government is looking for closer relations with the conservative administration of Paraguay, putting the emphasis on regional integration but also in making Mercosur a more open and dynamic trade and cooperation block.

Mercosur as a unified space has failed and Argentina must start thinking in a new partner, which could be the Pacific Alliance said one of Argentina's main businessmen with interests in a diversified portfolio, Eduardo Eurnekian. He made the statement on the sidelines of the World's Chambers Federation executive board meeting in Buenos Aires.

By Hugo Swire of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office - A year ago I spoke at a summit in London hosted by the Financial Times and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) about how the UK could work most effectively with the ‘Pacific Alliance’.

Brazil's utilities were granted an average special rate hike of 23.4% to cover the costs of a energy subsidy program that the government of President Dilma Rousseff has decided to stop funding directly, the country's electrical energy system regulator said on Friday, as reported by Folha de Sao Paulo.