
One day after the summit in Montevideo, Uruguay criticized the functioning of Mercosur, particularly the lack of cooperation, trade barriers and impediments and delays to essential infrastructure works for the group.

“We will always maintain our commitment to you on any question of sovereignty because your right to self-determination is the cornerstone of our policy”, said British Prime Minister David Cameron in his Christmas message to the Falkland Islands.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague and Uruguay’s Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro will discuss the Falklands/Malvinas flagged vessels issue on Friday according to a release from the British embassy in Montevideo

A report from the Uruguayan Coast Guard argues there is no legislation impeding Falklands/Malvinas flagged vessels from operating in the port of Montevideo. The report was handed to the Uruguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is drafting a protocol regarding what ships can and which can’t access Uruguayan ports.

Brazilian meat processors BRF Brasil Foods and Marfrig announced a deal on Thursday to trade assets, including a block of properties that Brazilian anti-trust body CADE mandated to be sold as part of the Sadia and Perdigao approval in July.

“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.

Reacting to the news this week that all Mercosur member countries had agreed to close their ports to ships flying the Falkland Islands flag, Cheryl Roberts, chair of the Falkland Islands Fishing Companies Association, stated that: “It is still too early to say exactly what the effect might be, whilst obviously disappointing we are now working to find solutions to minimise any potential impacts, both operational and economic, of the recent decision.

“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.

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.