Portugal’s caretaker Prime Minister Jose Socrates announced Tuesday that he has reached agreement on a bail-out from the EU and the International Monetary Fund. He said the three-year loan was a good agreement that defends Portugal.
European farmers insisted Monday before the European Parliament on the “catastrophic impact” that a trade agreement with Mercosur could have for the EU agriculture.
A week before the next round of negotiations for an ambitious association and trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, a paper from the EU Joint Research Study centre, JRS, quantifies the alleged losses of such a deal for European farmers.
The European Union and Argentina agreed to increase Argentina's lucrative Hilton Quota of high-end beef exports by 1,500 metric tons annually, according to a release in Buenos Aires from the Foreign Ministry late Wednesday.
Beginning June, Mercosur full members will share macro-economic indicators elaborated with the same criteria and which will be released simultaneously, according to reports in the Montevideo press. The initiative was partly financed by the European Union that also played an advisory role.
An overwhelming majority of EU citizens want the fish they buy to come from sources that are sustainable and not over-fished, according to an independent poll commissioned by World Wildlife Fund, WWF, and carried out in 14 EU countries.
The mix of high external indebtedness, the fragility of the financial sector and the probability of further declines in asset prices increase the probability of a funding squeeze at some point means that “Spain will be the next country to seek financial assistance from the EU and the International Monetary Fund”, argues one of the Financial Times respected columnists.
“Argentina is not a great trade partner for the European Union in absolute terms, but the EU is a crucial partner for Argentina”, pointed out the head of the EU delegation in Buenos Aires Alfonso Diez Torres.
Portugal's caretaker government said on Wednesday it had decided to seek financing from the European Union in an abrupt turnaround after resisting a bailout for months despite sharply deteriorating financial conditions.
Argentina's moves to restrict imports and prop up its shrinking trade surplus as well as European farmers resistance to ‘cheap’ meat imports could hurt talks for a trade deal between Mercosur and the European Union, an EU official said on Wednesday.