Mercosur

• Tuesday, September 18th 2012 - 16:18 UTC

  Uruguay calls for doubling efforts in EU/Mercosur trade and association talks

  

  Uruguayan Industry, Energy and Mining minister Roberto Kreimerman called on the European Union and Mercosur members to double efforts and advance in negotiations to achieve a wide ranging association agreement which has been discussed for almost two decades.

• Monday, September 17th 2012 - 05:48 UTC

  Spain dumps Paraguay from the Ibero-American summit not to offend Argentina

  

  A top Spanish official made a low profile and unexpected visit to Paraguay last week with the purpose of trying to convince the administration of president Federico Franco to remain absent from the coming Ibero-American summit scheduled for November since Madrid fears his presence could turn the event into a failure.

• Monday, September 17th 2012 - 05:37 UTC

  Venezuela and Argentina sign 24 agreements in the oil-food industries

  

  Venezuela and Argentina signed three institutional agreements and 24 among corporations during the two-day First Meeting for the Venezuela-Argentina Petro-industrial development with the purpose of intensifying trade, investment and cooperation between the two countries.

• Monday, September 17th 2012 - 02:37 UTC

  Paraguay could demand “moral and economic” compensation from Mercosur members

  

  Paraguay is considering demanding “moral and economic” compensation from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay for having been suspended from Mercosur as full member and at the same reiterated its rejection to Venezuela’s admission, according to the country Foreign Ministry.

• Friday, September 14th 2012 - 05:18 UTC

  Auction of Pluna’s Bombardier aircraft collapses: terms “non attractive” and “non viable”

  

  Uruguay’s attempt to auction the bankrupt national airline Pluna aircraft collapsed because none of the groups that showed an initial interest turned up arguing that the 136 million dollars for the seven Bombardier CRJ900 NextGen was “not attractive” and considered the whole business deal “non viable”.

• Friday, September 14th 2012 - 03:40 UTC

  Thousands across Argentina take to the streets to protest against re-re-election

  

  Appealing to social networks thousands of Argentines Thursday evening took to the streets of the country’s major cities to protest some of the latest measures from the government of President Cristina Fernandez including the re-re-election plans and the increasing restrictions to the purchase of dollars.

• Friday, September 14th 2012 - 00:51 UTC

  Brazilian extends tax breaks to two dozen industries to stimulate economy

  

  Brazil rolled out additional stimulus measures to bolster its sluggish economy on Thursday, extending tax breaks to more than two dozen industries and reducing the cost of acquiring capital goods in a bid to help struggling local businesses.

• Thursday, September 13th 2012 - 17:07 UTC

  Argentina’s official inflation for August, 0.9% and 6.8% in the eight months

  

  Argentina’s inflation advanced 0.9% in August and 6.8% in the first eight months of the year according to the controversial official stats office Indec. Whole sale prices were up 1% over July and the construction cost increased 1.3%.

• Thursday, September 13th 2012 - 17:03 UTC

  Argentina “suggests” banks should limit dollar extractions by credit card holders

  

  The Argentine central bank has informally “suggested” the banking system to limit the advances (in dollars) of credit card holders overseas, reports the Buenos Aires financial press. This is seen as another tightening of the dollar clamp imposed by the administration of President Cristina Fernandez to retain much needed foreign currency.

• Thursday, September 13th 2012 - 16:01 UTC

  Six ambassadors present credentials in Uruguay, including UK, Germany and Chile

  

  Six ambassadors presented their credentials to Uruguayan president Jose Mujica during a ceremony held at the Executive Tower on Tuesday. The first to meet President Mujica was UK ambassador Ben Lyster-Binns.