Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro seems to have blown up the last bridge to Mercosur when he launched a barrage of accusations against Uruguay's foreign minister which triggered an immediate reaction from president Tabare Vazquez, who demanded evidence of the charges or a public retraction from the embattled Maduro. But the conflict has also openly exposed the deep rift inside the Uruguayan ruling coalition regarding the Bolivarian revolution “anti imperialist” regime.
Dr David Nabarro, one of the three candidates for Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), visited Uruguay 23-24 March. During his stay he met with Health Minister Jorge Basso and Vice Minister Cristina Lustemberg, and with Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa, to explain his objectives and his vision for a better WHO, and to hear about Uruguay’s health situation, objectives and challenges.
The comprehensive Double Taxation Convention between Uruguay and the United Kingdom has taken effect from 1 January 2017.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said Tuesday that no one will be able to remove his country from the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), although the bloc's founders are considering a suspension for failure to fulfill commitments as an Associate State.
Venezuela will continue as member of Mercosur but with no right to vote, since it has not fully incorporated all the group's rules and regulations as had been agreed, revealed Uruguay's foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa on Friday in Montevideo.
Uruguay and Argentina, and their cabinets will be meeting this Monday in Buenos Aires to address a bilateral agenda, which was agreed long before hand, but the real issue will not necessarily be trade, dredging canals, pulp mills, customs or facilitating people's movement, but rather the negotiations for a free trade agreement which supposedly Uruguay is about to begin discussing with China.
President Tabare Vazquez confirmed on Monday that Uruguay will continue as “coordinator” of discussions between Mercosur and the European Union to reach a wide ranging trade agreement.
Mercosur full members are working on a resolution calling on Venezuela to comply with all rules, regulations and international treaties of the block, which should be incorporated by next December, and if not the country could lose its membership, according to Uruguayan foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa.
If beef is not included, there won't be any agreement, said Uruguay's foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa in anticipation of next week's meeting of European Union and Mercosur coordinators to adjust the list of goods and services the two blocks will formally exchange in mid October, the first formal meeting of its kind in fourteen years.
Negotiations for a trade and cooperation agreement between Mercosur and the European Union must continue and should not be overshadowed by political issues such as the impeachment process in Brazil, pointed out Paraguay's foreign minister Eladio Loizaga, following a motion by 15 Green Euro and United Left parliamentarians in Strasbourg to cancel discussions because of the corruption contaminated removal of Dilma Rousseff.