Mercosur

• Monday, March 9th 2009 - 14:20 UTC

  President Vazquez confident Uruguay is prepared for the crisis

  

  Uruguayan president Tabaré Vázquez underlined during a political rally over the weekend the successes of his administration and said the country was better prepared to face the current global crisis.

• Friday, March 6th 2009 - 08:58 UTC

  Brazil Argentina trade clash; dispute could reach WTO

  

  Brazil’s Foreign Trade Secretary Welber Barral admitted publicly that Brasilia is considering taking its trade dispute claims with Argentina to the World Trade Organization. Insistent leaks to the press from “reliable sources” anticipated for days the growing trade rift between Mercosur two main partners.

• Thursday, March 5th 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  Argentine/Brazil bilateral trade drops 40% in Jan-Feb

  

  Bilateral trade between Argentina and Brazil continued to deteriorate during the first two months of the year, according to official statistics released in Brasilia. Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade said that exports to Argentina in January-February were down to 1.33 billion US dollars which represents 46.5% less than Jan-Feb. 2008.

• Thursday, March 5th 2009 - 17:19 UTC

  Andean tunnel project to physically integrate Mercosur

  

  A Chilean and an Argentine company signed a partnership this week for the construction of a low altitude tunnel crossing the Andes to connect the neighboring countries, the crucial link for a bi-oceanic project dating back to 1994.

• Tuesday, March 3rd 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  Obama praises US/UK “special relation”; Brown in Congress

  

  President Barack Obama said Tuesday the US-UK “special relationship will only get stronger”, after holding talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It was “not just important to me; it's important to the American people”, he said told reporters in the White House.

• Monday, March 2nd 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  Paraguay announces trade countermeasures on Argentina and Brazil

  

  Paraguay will apply tariff related measures on imports from Argentina and Brazil to protect local industry announced the country's Finance minister Dionisio Borda arguing that the treatment will be similar to that from the senior Mercosur partners.

• Monday, March 2nd 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  Falklands and Prince celebrate success of albatross campaign

  

  At a formal reception at Clarence House in London on Monday February 23rd HRH the Prince of Wales, who has long been concerned about the dramatic decline of the albatross, heard that 18 of the world's 22 species threatened with extinction have a brighter future thanks to the efforts of the Albatross Task Force (ATF).

• Sunday, March 1st 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  US economy recorded lowest growth in '08 since '01: 1.1%

  The US economy shrank by 6.2% in the last three months of 2008, official figures have shown, a far sharper fall than had previously been reported. Plunging exports and the biggest fall in consumer spending in 28 years dragged the annualised figure down from an earlier estimate of 3.8%.

• Thursday, February 26th 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  Princess Royal to visit Falkland Islands in March

  

  TWO years after her last visit HRH The Princess Royal will be returning to the Falkland Islands.

• Tuesday, February 24th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Mercosur members can't agree on consensus for G20

  

  Mercosur Standing Secretary General Carlos Alvarez admitted it was difficult for the South American trade group to unify positions because “some countries see the global crisis as something distant”.