Mercosur

• Wednesday, January 24th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Chile to face rise in gas; Chile works on reducing gas dependency

  

  Despite promises last year that gas prices would remain stable in coming months, gas supply company Energas announced Tuesday that prices are to increase by an average of 2.7 percent.

• Sunday, January 21st 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  South American leaders focus on poor

  South American leaders sought to refocus their fractured trade bloc last Thursday on the needs of the region's poor as Venezuela's outspoken president called for remaking Mercosur to fit his vision of “21st century socialism.”

• Saturday, January 20th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Mercosur: no mincing words

  

  Paraguay, the new temporary president of the Mercosur trade bloc, yesterday urged Argentina and Uruguay to solve their dispute about a pulp mill that has taken them to the World Court, on the last day of a two-day Mercosur summit in Rio de Janeiro marked by harsh squabbles between Venezuela and Bolivia on one hand and Colombia and Brazil on the other.

• Friday, January 19th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Penguin News Update

  Headlines:
  
  Royal remembrance; CE: no truth to 'ferry fall out' story; Blank firing on for Ex. Cape Petrel; Cheryl is new CFL head; Relocated reindeer 'doing well'; Thousands visit this week; Telecoms man to look at pricing.

• Friday, January 19th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Mercosur approves compensation funds for junior members

  

  Mercosur Council approved Thursday in Brazil several pilot projects in Uruguay and Paraguay to compensate asymmetries inside the group which have created rifts among country members.

• Wednesday, January 17th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Vazquez pessimistic over pulp mills dispute and Mercosur summit

  

  A few hours before the Mercosur summit in Brazil, Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez discarded Wednesday a meeting with his Argentine counterpart Nestor Kirchner to discuss the pulp mills dispute and insisted on the lifting of bridge blockades before any negotiation can begin.

• Tuesday, January 16th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  China's “only interest” in Latam is finite resources

  China is willing to invest billons of US dollars in Latinamerica to ensure the supply of natural resources but the region's leaders are wrong if they believe that “ideological similarities” guarantee a long cooperation since the interest of Beijing is opportunity, according to the Hong Kong based “China Economic Review”.

• Tuesday, January 16th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  A Mercosur summit potentially full of surprises

  

  An agenda with several controversial issues awaits Mercosur summit this week in Rio do Janeiro where some in fighting can also be expected given the level of criticism to which the trade group has been exposed.

• Tuesday, January 16th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Brazil can have a “pivotal role” in world trade talks

  By UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett (*)
  
  
  It's one of my personal priorities as Foreign Secretary to get out and speak more to the business community. I simply don't think that it is possible to operate a successful foreign policy without working as closely as I can with the people who hold most of the global economic levers.

• Monday, January 15th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Mercosur in a “crisis situation”, but it is part of the process

  

  Former Brazilian president Jose Sarney, (1985/1990) admitted that Mercosur was undergoing a “crisis situation” but it's something normal to the development of a customs' union.