Argentine Foreign Minister Felipe Solá reaffirmed on Thursday the decision of president Alberto Fernandez's government to continue being part of Mercosur. When asked about links with the other member countries of the bloc, Solá said that a “rupture or union depends on the political will of the governments and our will is, that we are not on the rupture path”
British supermarkets have warned Brazil they might have to boycott its products if lawmakers there pass a contentious bill that could enable faster destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
France and Germany proposed on Monday a 500-billion-euro (US$545-billion) fund to finance the recovery of the European Union's economy from the devastation wrought by the coronavirus crisis.
Britain and the European Union urged each other on Friday to give ground in talks over a post-Brexit trade deal or risk failure in tetchy exchanges after the latest bout of bargaining ended with scant progress.
Airlines will not have to leave seats empty, but passengers flying in the European Union will have to wear masks on planes and in airports under plans to revive the travel industry.
France and the Netherlands have joined forces to urge the European Union to enforce environmental and labor standards more forcefully with countries the bloc signs trade deals with, according to a document anticipated by the Financial Times.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a newspaper interview on Saturday there was a growing risk of a hard Brexit in the midst of the coronavirus crisis as negotiations between Britain and the European Union so far on the future trade relationship had yielded hardly any progress.
The European Union and Mexico finalized a major upgrade to their free trade deal on Tuesday after the two sides agreed to grant reciprocal market access to each other’s tenders for public contracts.
In the midst of the chaotic situation caused by the pandemic, the Argentine government announced the abandonment of Mercosur negotiations to prioritize the country’s domestic economy and the struggle against the virus. The rest of the bloc members must evaluate legal, institutional, and operational measures emerging from the decision.
British and European Union (EU) officials restarted on Monday a week-long round of Brexit trade talks after a break because of the coronavirus, which is making an end-of-year deal look even more unlikely. After a first-round in early March negotiations were suspended for six weeks as officials focused on the deadly virus sweeping Europe.