Pacific Alliance

• Friday, August 15th 2014 - 02:26 UTC

  All phone calls inside Chile become local; Punta Arenas code area is 61

  

  Chile has become a single territory for telecommunications and long distance calls with different rates for fixed lines will no longer exist beginning Saturday. This in practical terms will also means a 50% reduction on normal phone calls.

• Friday, August 8th 2014 - 07:59 UTC

  Brazil insists in trade agreements and closer ties with Pacific Alliance, despite Mercosur

  

  Brazil confirmed that it will try to bring forward to 2016 the free trade agreement with Chile, Peru and Colombia, scheduled for 2019 and underlined the need for Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance to converge as part of the region's productive integration process.

• Friday, July 25th 2014 - 06:22 UTC

  Brazil wants to speed Mercosur/Pacific Alliance free trade understanding

  

  Brazil will propose next Tuesday, in Caracas, during the Mercosur summit that the group and the Pacific Alliance reach an agreement on free trade by the end of the year, according to official sources from Itamaraty.

• Tuesday, July 1st 2014 - 10:16 UTC

  Mercosur waking up to the significance and impact of the Pacific Alliance

  

  Mercosur leaders called for dialogue with the Pacific Alliance over its perception that Mercosur is becoming an obstacle to integration and wider growth in the region. Uruguayan Vice-President Danilo Astori seemingly sparked the debate a few weeks ago when he said that “Mercosur mustn’t be a terminal station,” calling for formal trade deals with the Pacific Alliance.

• Saturday, June 21st 2014 - 08:54 UTC

  Pacific Alliance bourses, MILA, planned to be integrated by end of year

  

  Mexico's stock exchange plans to be connected to bourses in Chile, Colombia and Peru by year-end through the Latin American Integrated Market, or MILA, nearly doubling the size of the bloc, it was announced in Mexico City.

• Saturday, June 21st 2014 - 08:35 UTC

  Bachelet proposes meeting of Mercosur and Pacific Alliance leaders

  

  Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on Friday proposed a September gathering between officials and business leaders from Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance in hopes of creating a tie-up between the two Latin American trade groups.

• Friday, June 20th 2014 - 06:34 UTC

  Colombia-Brazil consider closer links between Pacific Alliance and Mercosur

  

  Colombia and Brazil's presidents Juan Manuel Santos and Dilma Rousseff met in Brasilia to address regional and bilateral affairs and the possibility of closer links between the Pacific Alliance and Mercosur, which “are naturally complementary and do not compete among themselves”.

• Monday, June 16th 2014 - 06:58 UTC

  Pacific Alliance wants to 'expand influence' through cooperation with other groups

  

  The Pacific Alliance will try to 'expand its influence' through agreements with other blocks to improve cooperation in different fields while targeting a “wider integration” in the region, said Mexico's Economy minister Ildefonso Guajardo. The Alliance is holding its summit this week in Punta Mita, Mexico when the chair of the group will pass from Colombia on to Mexico.

• Monday, June 2nd 2014 - 01:09 UTC

  Pacific Alliance to hold round of integration 'informative' talks with Mercosur

  

  Pacific Alliance members meeting in Mexico agreed to hold an “informative” ministerial round of talks with their Mercosur and associates' counterparts to talk about regional integration. The announcement was done following a closed doors meeting of Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru foreign ministers who are preparing the agenda for the next Pacific Alliance summit.