
A soy bean bumper crop in South America in early 2010 will ease world reserves of grains, currently at very low levels, and will also have an impact on international prices according to Oil World.

The Brazilian senate postponed on Wednesday until next Tuesday the vote on Venezuela’s incorporation to Mercosur following a heated debate on the floor when the opposition strongly criticized Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

Fearful of the continued depreciation of the US dollar vis-á-vis other global currencies, Mercosur country members admitted one of the possibilities under consideration for the management of international foreign reserves is the creation of a kind of sovereign fund.

The political coincidences of the two-day Mercosur presidential summit held in Montevideo overshadowed the lack of relevant decisions for the consolidation of the block as a customs union, according to Brazilian sources.

Mercosur is committed to advance trade negotiations with the European Union and expects to have drafted a viable position when leaders from Latinamerica and the Caribbean meet with their European Union counterparts next May for the Madrid summit.

Mercosur presidents expressed their most “energetic condemnation” of the Honduran coup and “total and full rejection” of the November 29th elections which represent a strong blow to “the democratic values of Latinamerica and the Caribbean”.

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.

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”.

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

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