
President Hugo Chávez expects Venezuela will be fully incorporated to Mercosur before Brazilian president Lula da Silva steps down from office next January first. The two leaders met Wednesday in Brasilia and also agreed to strengthen Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).

Venezuela is an extremely important factor for the social and economic development of the region and Brazil will insist upon Paraguay on the need for the approval of Venezuela’s incorporation as full member of Mercosur, stressed Senator Romero Juca from the Brazilian ruling coalition.

Brazilian opposition presidential candidate Jose Serra—who leads in public opinion vote intention polls—reiterated his call for a more “flexible” Mercosur, effectively becoming a free trade area, because the current format limits Brazil’s sovereignty to sign agreements with other non member countries.

Brazil’s leading presidential candidate Jose Serra described Mercosur as a “farce” and a “barrier” for Brazil to sign trade agreements with other countries.

Egypt expects to complete free trade negotiations with the four Mercosur countries -- Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay -- in July, Egypt's trade minister revealed this week in Cairo.

Mercosur is waiting for “dialogue contributions” from the European Union to decide on negotiations for a political and commercial agreement with the EU. Brussels is expected to make its move at the end of April on time for a formal launching in May of the decade-long delayed but very much needed block to block talks.

Ford Motor said it will spend 250 million US dollars on its operations in Argentina, where it will start production of a new vehicle for the Mercosur market. President and Chief Executive Alan Mulally announced the plan Wednesday during a meeting in Buenos Aires with Argentina President Cristina Fernandez.

Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica admitted Mercosur has its problems but it is also the market for Uruguayan exports with most added value: “to the rest of the world we sell mostly commodities, to Mercosur Uruguayan input”.

Increasing trade, bilateral and regional integration dominate Monday’s agenda for the meeting in Brasilia between President Lula da Silva and Uruguayan leader Jose Mujica.

Mercosur main country members, Argentina and Brazil begun on Thursday a two-day round of bilateral trade talks in Brazil to discuss basically whether to continue or not with the non-automatic licenses both countries hold.