Mercosur

• Wednesday, December 9th 2009 - 08:32 UTC

  Brazilian Senate ready to vote on Venezuela’s Mercosur incorporation

  

  Brazilian president Lula da Silva announced Tuesday during the Mercosur summit in Montevideo that the Brazilian Senate should, finally, vote on the incorporation of Venezuela to the South American trade group as a full member.

• Tuesday, December 8th 2009 - 14:07 UTC

  Mercosur promotes trade with local currencies, far from “US dollar tensions”

  

  Mercosur is considering extending a “successful” Brazil/Argentina bilateral trade experience which sidelines the US dollar and privileges regional currencies to the rest of the group’s full members, Paraguay and Uruguay, thus avoiding being submitted to the “greenback’s tensions”.

• Tuesday, December 8th 2009 - 03:56 UTC

  EU/Mercosur sign cooperation agreement

  

  The European Union and Mercosur signed a cooperation agreement involving 27 million US dollars earmarked for the sustainable development of the region.

• Monday, December 7th 2009 - 12:29 UTC

  A two-day busy Mercosur summit begins Monday in Montevideo

  

  Uruguay is hosting as of Monday the Mercosur bi-annual presidential summit which will have as top issue of the agenda trade differences among its members, particularly Argentina and Brazil, and on the sidelines contacts of Uruguay’s president-elect Jose Mujica with leaders from Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay

• Thursday, December 3rd 2009 - 13:35 UTC

  Toys’ game: Brazil warns Argentina that trade restrictions will be reciprocated

  

  Brazil has threatened with trade reprisals if Argentina does not lift new restrictions to imports of Brazilian manufactured toys. Trade tensions between the two Mercosur partners and largest economies of South America have soured lately because of what Brazil considers “protectionist” measures and attitudes from Argentina.

• Tuesday, December 1st 2009 - 13:10 UTC

  Mercosur/EU political support to bolster technical meetings

  

  Mercosur officials together with representatives from Spain, Portugal and the European Community agreed Monday to provide greater emphasis to the technical meetings with the purpose of advancing towards an association agreement between the two blocks.

• Tuesday, December 1st 2009 - 07:35 UTC

  Mercosur, India and African nations begin trade and investment talks

  

  Brazil launched this week in Geneva a round of negotiations to further liberate trade between Mercosur, India and the Union of Nations from Austral Africa with the purpose of ratifying south-south cooperation, while global negotiations in the framework of the Doha Round remain stalled.

• Tuesday, December 1st 2009 - 07:33 UTC

  Paraguayan Senate “freezes” Venezuela’s Mercosur incorporation

  

  The Paraguayan Senate is also turning its back on Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez Mercosur incorporation request. A leading Senator from the ruling coalition said that under current circumstances, and Chavez latest statements makes it “virtually impossible” to decide on the issue.

• Monday, November 30th 2009 - 11:51 UTC

  Mujica reaches out to the opposition and calls for political agreements

  

  Jose “Pepe” Mujica, 74, from the ruling Broad Front coalition was confirmed Sunday as Uruguay’s next president having defeated in the run-off 51.9% to 44.1%, Conservative candidate and former president Luis Alberto Lacalle.

• Saturday, November 28th 2009 - 07:28 UTC

  Mercosur/EU trade talks to resume next Monday in Portugal

  

  Mercosur countries are preparing a meeting with European representatives on the sidelines of the Ibero-American summit this weekend in Portugal to confirm their “interest” in reactivating trade negotiations with the EU, according to Spanish diplomatic sources.