Mercosur

• Wednesday, July 24th 2013 - 07:34 UTC

  Paraguay ready to return to Mercosur but is talking trade with Mexico, US and the Pacific Alliance

  

  Paraguay is ready to return to Mercosur as long as there is respect the country’s dignity, but at the same time will look for other trade and cooperation opportunities with Mexico, United States and the Pacific Alliance, said the Paraguayan ambassador in Washington.

• Wednesday, July 24th 2013 - 07:29 UTC

  Argentina/Brazil trade disputes reached a ‘furious level’ during Mercosur last summit in Montevideo

  

  International issues helped Mercosur to close ranks and give a false image of unity during the last summit held in Uruguay, according to diplomatic sources in Montevideo that are surfacing details of a bitter exchange behind doors between Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez and Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff.

• Tuesday, July 23rd 2013 - 08:06 UTC

  Argentina refuses to inform Paraguay on a nuclear reactor it is planning along the border

  

  The administration of President Cristina Fernandez rejected a request from Paraguay on the nuclear plant, and area of influence, Argentina plans to build in the neighbouring province of Formosa. The situation was exposed by Paraguayan lawmaker Olga Ferreira de Lopez who called the Argentine president a ‘perverse woman’.

• Monday, July 22nd 2013 - 06:29 UTC

  Mercosur chair not interested in restoring normal relations with US

  

  Venezuela says it's ending talks with the United States to restore normal relations because Washington's UN ambassador-designate criticized its human rights record. Venezuela currently holds the chair of Mercosur.

• Thursday, July 18th 2013 - 09:08 UTC

  President-elect demands rule of the law before Paraguay returns as active Mercosur member

  

  Paraguayan president elect Horacio Cartes confirmed that his government will insist in its position regarding Mercosur, which expects Paraguay to return as full active member following the inauguration ceremony 15 August.

• Thursday, July 18th 2013 - 08:26 UTC

  Venezuelan parliament approves incorporation of Bolivia to Mercosur as full member

  

  The Venezuelan parliament approved Bolivia’s protocol of adherence to Mercosur as full member thus clearing the way for the landlocked mostly indigenous populated country to become the sixth member of the South American trade block next to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

• Wednesday, July 17th 2013 - 07:50 UTC

  Brazil downplays the Pacific Alliance significance, as an “integration project”

  

  Brazilian Foreign minister Antonio Patriota downplayed the significance of the Alliance of the Pacific, the free trade agreement which includes Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico, arguing it is not a “real deep integration” as the one proposed by Mercosur.

• Wednesday, July 17th 2013 - 07:16 UTC

  Brazilian lawmaker blasts ‘unnecessary hostility and arrogance’ towards Paraguay

  

  An influential member of Congress from south Brazil strongly criticized his country’s foreign policy towards Paraguay and Mercosur condemning the ‘unnecessary hostility’ and for abandoning legitimate interests and basic principles for an ‘ideological affinity solidarity’.

• Tuesday, July 16th 2013 - 17:15 UTC

  Uruguay presses for EU/Mercosur talks fearing loss of tariff benefits

  

  Uruguay needs a quick resumption of Mercosur/European Union trade and cooperation talks because at the end of the year expire a number of tariff benefits for Uruguayan exports, revealed Foreign minister Luis Almagro.

• Tuesday, July 16th 2013 - 17:10 UTC

  Argentina has dealt a ‘mortal blow’ to Mercosur that has become ‘a political forum’

  

  Speaking for a Brazilian business association in Sao Paulo, Rubén Barbosa accused the government of Argentina of dealing a ‘mortal blow’ to Mercosur, the regional grouping that was originally focused on economic integration and has since become a political forum for the region’s leaders as was again evident during the last summit in Montevideo.