Mercosur and European Union chief negotiators met on Friday in Brussels to define if conditions are ready for the exchange of tariffs reductions proposals with the purpose of reaching an ambitious trade agreement which was started back in 1999 and has yet to mature.
The Bolivian Senate is expected to vote next month for the full incorporation of the country to Mercosur, thus complying with some of the last steps to join the group made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
President Jose Mujica said that Mercosur even with all its problems has been a good deal although it could have been better, and it is imperative that the group signs trade agreements with Europe and China, which has become the main trade partner of the region.
Chile's new foreign minister Heraldo Muñoz ratified his country's membership of the Pacific Alliance, a much questioned group by other regional organizations such as the Venezuelan inspired ALBA and even Mercosur led by Brazil, and suggested that Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance could consider integration. Chile is currently an associate member of Mercosur.
Mercosur will present a joint proposal to the European Union for a wide ranging trade agreement between the two blocks later this month, announced Brazil' Minister of Industry Mauro Borges, following a visit to Buenos Aires where he met with Economy minister Axel Kicillof and Industry minister Debora Giorgi.
Foreign ministers from Unasur (Union of South American Nations) will be drafting a statement calling for peace and dialogue to end the month-long clashes in Venezuela when they be meeting on Wednesday in Santiago de Chile. The meeting and agenda have the support from the Venezuelan government.
The dynamic imbalance in trade negotiations is clearly evident in the case of trade negotiations of Canada and the US with the European Union, and what happens with EU/Mercosur trade talks that have been going for seventeen years, with no clear results yet, according to OAS Secretary General Miguel Insulza.
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.
Paraguay will hold the following rotating chair of Mercosur, (if the group's summit to be hosted by Venezuela and which has been delayed on several occasions really takes place). The announcement was made by Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff during her visit on Monday to Brussels for the Brazil/EU summit, who underlined that Brazil supports dialogue as the way out to the current situation in Venezuela.
The Mercosur summit is still scheduled for March but given the current situation in Venezuela, host of the event, there could be another delay admitted Paraguay's Foreign minister Eladio Loizaga, who added that there are permanent contacts between members countries to try and avoid another scenario.