Mercosur and Japan resumed trade negotiations and exchanged data on the state of their respective agendas regarding the IV chapter of the bilateral dialogue. and reaffirmed their commitment to continue with the talks. The delegations met in Buenos Aires at the foreign ministry, chaired by Argentina which currently holds the pro tempore chair of Mercosur.
Mercosur and CER (Closer Economic Relations), with includes Australia and New Zealand, resumed trade talks this week in Buenos Aires, with Argentina currently holding the South American block presidency chairing the meeting.
The European Union and South American trade bloc Mercosur should intensify talks to reach a trade agreement this year, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Tuesday, urging haste after 18 years of negotiations.
An optimistic foreign minister Susana Malcorra said that Argentina expects the Mercosur/European Union trade agreement to be announced next December during the World Trade Organization meeting to be held in Buenos Aires, and which she described as an event of great political impact.
Argentine president Mauricio Macri is convinced that in the second half of the year Mercosur will sign the long awaited trade agreement with the European Union and will establish closer links with the Pacific Alliance, according to a report in one of Buenos Aires leading radios.
Mercosur and Canada re-launched discussions for a possible trade agreement this week, following a meeting of technical delegations in Argentina, which currently holds the chair of the South American group, and hosted the round of talks.
Mercosur and Pacific Alliance foreign ministers are scheduled to meet this Friday in Buenos Aires, on an Argentine initiative to advance in a possible political and trade confluence with the prospect of a regional alliance in the near future. The controversial Venezuela case will also be on the table, but attendants have anticipated that they won't let this issue dominate the agenda or cast a shadow on the purpose of the summit.
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro seems to have blown up the last bridge to Mercosur when he launched a barrage of accusations against Uruguay's foreign minister which triggered an immediate reaction from president Tabare Vazquez, who demanded evidence of the charges or a public retraction from the embattled Maduro. But the conflict has also openly exposed the deep rift inside the Uruguayan ruling coalition regarding the Bolivarian revolution “anti imperialist” regime.
The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) is pushing to have meat removed from the proposed trade deal between Europe and Mercosur in the wake of Brazil’s meat scandal. The move could scupper the entire trade deal given the importance of the meat industry to Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Ambassador in Argentina Mark Kent said that the UK process of leaving the EU will be slow and in the meantime as it opens to new alliances, new markets, Britain will be looking for closer relations with Argentina, and Mercosur, not geared by protectionism but rather the opposite, an inclusive globalization.