
The president of the Standing Committee of Mercosur representatives said he feels frustrated with the workings of the South American trade group and proposes drastic changes since in the current global circumstances integration advances in the region could even turn negative.

Asean and Mercosur representatives are meeting Monday in Brasilia to explore new venues of promoting trade and investments according to a release from the Brazilian Foreign Affairs ministry. This is the first time the two blocks as such meet.

Barack Obama, the US president-elect, has ordered his advisers to produce an economic recovery plan aimed at creating 2.5 million new jobs across the country over the next two years.

A free trade agreement to be signed by China and Peru in March will go into effect in the second half of 2009, if everything goes as planned, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced.

Several hundred demonstrators gathered outside of Endesa's Santiago headquarters Wednesday evening to protest the Spanish-Italian electricity company's plans to build a huge hydroelectric complex in Chilean Patagonia.

Mercosur senior members, Argentina and Brazil agreed to sponsor an increase in the common external tariff (AEC) on several products from third countries, during a meeting Monday of the Bilateral Trade Monitoring Committee held in Buenos Aires

The global financial crunch, rapidly becoming a threatening full fledged international recession will be addressed Monday in Montevideo, Uruguay by Mercosur leaders.

Mercosur country members are in a more solid position to face the global financial crisis that rich nations, said Brazilian president Lula da Silva who nevertheless called for a stronger trade links among its members.
Unemployment in the United States during October rose to 6.5%, totalling 10 million jobless and the highest rate since March 1994, according to the latest release from the US Labour Department.
The General Assembly and the Security Council elected this week five judges to serve nine-year terms on the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, starting early next year.