Once Mercosur and the European Union conclude their exchange of goods and tariff reduction proposals for the long awaited trade agreement, contents of the deal will be kept in reserve while negotiations are ongoing, with no access to media or public opinion, anticipated Paraguayan foreign minister Eladio Loizaga.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff stated on Thursday in Brussels she was not upset by differences with Argentina over the trade agreement Mercosur is to sign with the European Union, despite president Cristina Fernandez administration's cold feet on the issue.
Paraguay believes in a 'single speed' approach to negotiations for a trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, but discussions must be more dynamic and wide ranging, said the country's president Horacio Cartes, currently visiting Spain.
Uruguay's vice-president Raúl Sendic and Foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa will be attending this week's summit of EU and Celac leaders scheduled in Brussels, which will also address in the sidelines, current EU/Mercosur negotiations for a wide ranging trade agreement.
Mercosur foreign ministers will be meeting in June with the European Union Trade Commissionaire Cecilia Malmstrom to 'assess' the current negotiations for a comprehensive trade and cooperation agreement. The meeting in Brussels will be on the sidelines of the EU-Celac (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) summit, the first at ministerial level since January 2013
Uruguay and Brazil foreign ministers Rodolfo Nin Novoa and Mauro Vieira will be meeting this week in Brasilia in yet another attempt to push forward the stalled negotiations for a trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, according to the minutes of a meeting of the Uruguayan official with members of the Foreign Affairs committee.
After many years of talking, the World Trade Organization (WTO) pulled off a major deal last week that the body said could boost global commerce by one trillion dollars annually. The deal is the first multilateral trade agreement in the organization’s 20-year history. Agreement has been difficult to reach because WTO deals require the unanimous backing of its 160 member countries.
The tendency to impose trade-restricting measures remains strong among the European Union's commercial partners, fuelling continuing uncertainty in the world economy. These are the main findings of the European Commission's annual report on protectionism published Monday 17 November.
Nearly 2,000 African migrants, many of them Eritrean and Somalis, have arrived on Italy's tiny, overcrowded Lampedusa Island in the past 24 hours. It is one of the biggest migrant waves to reach Lampedusa this year.