Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff already has the names for crucial posts in her new government, but they will not be announced until next Wednesday according to reports in Sao Paulo and Rio do Janeiro newspapers based on Planalto sources. But the names were sufficient to make the Sao Paulo stock exchange surge 5% on Friday.
Political, business and academic leaders gathered for the ninth annual World Economic Forum in Latin America in Panama set out strategies for the region to move beyond dependence on commodity exports and face the challenges of a rapidly changing global economy.
Brazil would like free-trade talks between the European Union and Mercosur to include Argentina, but would be prepared to proceed without its regional ally if an understanding can't be reached on March 7, according to the head of Brazil's farming confederation.
“Until when will we allow ideology to prevail over economics, markets, competitiveness grounding the great vessel of Brazilian trade in the port of little regional pretensions”, asks Katia Abreu in a column published in Folha de Sao Paulo openly criticizing the administration of Dilma Rousseff for its Mercosur policy and the results of the recent Montevideo summit.
One of Mercosur ‘main obstacles’ is political and has its origin in Argentina, a country that is ‘extremely protectionist’, said the president of Brazil’s National Agriculture Confederation, CAN, Senator Katia Abreu currently in Brussels promoting the idea of a bilateral Brazil/EU free trade agreement.