
Brazil trusts Paraguay will fully return to Mercosur before the end of the year, said Brazil's Executive foreign policy advisor Marco Aurelio Garcia in a Sunday edition interview with the influential Folha de Sao Paulo.

Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes vetoed the bill imposing a 10% tax on export of cereals and oilseeds in their natural state recently approved by a divided Congress, arguing it was “highly distortive and regressive”. The bill now returns to the legislative.

The conclusion of a trade and cooperation agreement between the European Union and Mercosur ‘only depends on the bloc’ said the European Commission Vice-President for Industry and Entrepreneurship Antonio Tajani.

Uruguay’s Director of Culture, Hugo Achugar accused Argentina of violating Mercosur cultural accords from the moment it is demanding work visas for Uruguayan artists performing in Argentina.

Bolivian president Evo Morales claimed that the Pacific Alliance (Colombia, Chile, Peru and Mexico) is part of a major conspiration plotted “from the north” and directed to divide the Union of South American Nations, Unasur.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said it was ‘absurd’ that in the context of Mercosur the free circulation of goods was non existent and expressed disappointment with Argentina’s obstacles, but nevertheless insisted dialogue was the only valid instrument to overcome trade differences.

Mercosur has many internal problems and therefore it is much easier to work with Brazil, said European Commission Vice-President for Industry and Entrepreneurship Antonio Tajani who spent this week two days of negotiations with top officials in Brasilia.

Venezuela and Paraguay need to re-establish full relations and overcome “all the obstacles that need to be overcome”, said Foreign minister Elías Jaua currently in Asunción, a special guest of his counterpart Eladio Loizaga.

The Brazilian government National Trade Council, Camex, approved the contents of a proposed trade liberalization offer to be made by Brazil involving negotiations for a wide ranging cooperation and trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union.

Venezuela Foreign minister Elias Jaua is expected Wednesday in Asuncion, a guest of the Paraguayan government to talk about bilateral relations, Mercosur and to advance in negotiations of common interest, according to sources from the administration of President Horacio Cartes.