The 15th Presidential Summit of the Pacific Alliance, a bloc made up of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, will be held on December 11th in Santiago de Chile, albeit via videoconference due to Covid-19.
Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru plan to work with the World Bank to launch a new bond to cover losses in the event of extreme weather, Peru's finance minister said.
British Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Elizabeth Truss visits Latin America to build relationships with Brazil and Chile. Ms Truss visited Brasília, São Paulo and Santiago for bilateral meetings with ministers and will follow-up on the second UK/Brazil Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD), particularly on infrastructure.
South Korea and Chile agreed on Wednesday to bolster substantive bilateral partnerships in various sectors on the basis of their free trade agreement (FTA). Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha and his Chilean counterpart Roberto Ampuero held talks on the sidelines of a regional meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Hanoi, according to Kang's ministry.
Uruguay will be handed the rotating chair of Mercosur this Monday in a brief summit ceremony to take place in Paraguay. Attending will be Brazil's Michel Temer, Uruguay's Tabare Vázquez, the host Paraguay Horacio Cartes and in representation of Argentina, vice president Gabriela Michetti. President Mauricio Macri is in the midst of a cabinet reshuffle and waiting for market reaction this Monday following the naming of a new Central Bank chairman.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson concluded a five-day charm offensive in South America on Wednesday by expressing interest in a trade agreement with Chile and other countries in the so-called Pacific Alliance. Johnson extended a trip to a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Buenos Aires to include a tour of Peru, Argentina and Chile, seeking closer ties with all three countries.
Chilean Foreign Affairs Minister Heraldo Munoz called for closer ties between Latin America's two leading trade blocs. Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance should work more closely together, Munoz told the 51st Mercosur and associate members summit held this week in Brasilia.
Mercosur inked a trade deal with Colombia last Friday to allow limited quantities of tariff-free trade in products including automobiles, textiles and agrochemicals, Argentina's and Colombia's governments said.
Argentine president Mauricio Macri is convinced that in the second half of the year Mercosur will sign the long awaited trade agreement with the European Union and will establish closer links with the Pacific Alliance, according to a report in one of Buenos Aires leading radios.
Mercosur and Pacific Alliance foreign ministers are scheduled to meet this Friday in Buenos Aires, on an Argentine initiative to advance in a possible political and trade confluence with the prospect of a regional alliance in the near future. The controversial Venezuela case will also be on the table, but attendants have anticipated that they won't let this issue dominate the agenda or cast a shadow on the purpose of the summit.