
Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and the Foreign Affairs Minister of Uruguay Rodolfo Nin Novoa, on Wednesday exchanged EU and Mercosur offers on access to their respective markets of goods, services and establishment and government procurement. However this first exchange excluded 'sensitive' items such as beef and ethanol, according to EU sources. The details of the documents exchanged were not made public.

Argentine foreign minister Susana Malcorra said she plans to meet with British officials to address a multiple agenda and a pending issue, in the framework of a transparency meeting scheduled to take place in London.

The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) is to protest on Wednesday May 4, in Dublin against the proposed Mercosur and TTIP trade deals. The protest will take place outside the offices of the European Commission in the Irish capital.

We respect the Brazilian constitutional process and thus Argentina does not have plans to follow on president Dilma Rousseff announcement that she will appeal to Mercosur to implement the democratic clause if the impeachment process to remove the head of state from office advances in the country's Senate.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff from New York accused her political opponents as “coup mongers” and “conspirators” and insisted she would fight to the very end the impeachment process to remove her from office. But her attacks faced a solid defense in Brazil including from members of the Supreme Court who expressed concern the president was questioning Brazil's institutions before the world.

Despite growing optimism among Mercosur member countries of reaching a trade agreement with the European Union, Argentine minister of foreign affairs Susana Malcorra has cautioned that the road ahead is not a bed of roses, and the coming exchange of goods and tariff reduction proposals will not satisfy any of the two sides, but that is where serious discussions begin.

The European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and Rodolfo Nin Novoa, Foreign Minister of Uruguay, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the South American trading bloc Mercosur, agreed on Friday in Brussels on the next steps in the negotiations on an EU-Mercosur trade agreement.

Brazil exhausted its economic model, the domestic market is no longer enough and Brazilian protectionism hindered competitiveness and scared foreign investment, claimed retired Brazilian diplomat Jose Botafogo at the international symposium The future of Mercosur organized in Paraguay as part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the South American block.

Uruguay Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa is scheduled to begin this Friday in Brussels what is believed to be the last round of talks with the European Union to reach a wide ranging cooperation and trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union.

The Irish Farmers' Association has described an European Union offer to allow limited access to the EU market for Mercosur beef producers as “unfair”. The offer, which includes beef producers in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, is about to be presented to European Union member states for discussion, ahead of a proposed formal exchange of offers as part of the EU-Mercosur trade negotiations in May.