
Suriname and Guyana signed on Thursday the protocols to become associate members of Mercosur which is currently holding its mid year summit in Montevideo. This means all South American countries are now part of Mercosur.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said he had talked with his peer from Brazil Dilma Rousseff who confirmed the invitation to an extraordinary meeting of Mercosur next July 31 in Rio do Janeiro.

Canadian Minister of International Trade Ed Fast has concluded a two-day trade visit to Argentina, to promote the conclusion of exploratory talks towards a possible free trade agreement (FTA) with the Mercosur trade bloc.

“It is unacceptable to engage in an economic blockade of the Falklands, there can be no justification, legal, moral or political, for efforts to intimidate the people of the Falkland Islands”, said Foreign Officer Minister Jeremy Browne on Wednesday.

“Malvinas is not an Argentine cause, it’s a global cause because they are taking our fisheries and oil resources” said Argentine president Cristina Fernandez on taking the Mercosur rotating chair for the next six months.

Mercosur member countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) finally agreed Tuesday to close its ports to ships flying the flag of the disputed Falkland/Malvinas Islands, announced Uruguay's president at the closing of the group’s two-day summit in Montevideo.

President Hugo Chavez claimed that a small group of Paraguayan lawmakers, manipulated by a “powerful black hand”, are impeding the long-delayed access of Venezuela as full member of Mercosur.

Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo called for the free flow and free access of his country’s goods to Mercosur senior members’ markets and insisted on the energy integration of the block.

Mercosur signed a free trade agreement with the Palestinian Authority on Tuesday, the first between the territories and a block of nations outside the Arab world. The ceremony took place during Mercosur presidential summit in Montevideo.

Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa said he was satisfied with having presented an official request for his country to join Mercosur and also called for closer links between Mercosur and the Andean Nations Community, CAN.