ISDS Case Map
Brazil
The Brazilian Lower House Constitution and Justice Committee passed on Wednesday a motion for the long awaited incorporation of Venezuela to the South American trade block, Mercosur. However Venezuelan membership still faces a full debate in the House and must convince the Brazilian Senate.
In the United States, experts debate whether biofuel growth in the tropics will cut into profits for Midwest producers. Special free-trade agreements with those countries can make it less expensive to ship ethanol from there to the US coasts.
Certain analysts were critical of the summit's achievements, saying it failed to make real headway with matters central to trade between the three regional powers -- such as tariffs.
The declaration issued after the Tshwane India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Summit on 17 October 2007.
India, Brazil and South Africa cemented their trilateral cooperation by signing seven agreements here Wednesday and resolved to push for a free trade area, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling for considerably enhancing trade among the three.
IBSA was conceived in 2003 to counterbalance the powerful Group of Eight alliance of industrialised countries and to promote South-South cooperation. But a reality check reveals that all three IBSA members still do by far most of their business with industrialised countries.
After the failure of talks on the Free Trade Area of the Americas and slow progress in advancing the Doha round agenda of the World Trade Organization, executives from Brazil and the US have decided to take the matter of improving trade relations between their countries into their own hands.
Bilateral trade agreement with Asean and European Union are passe. The stage is set for the first trans-continental treaty with India, South Africa and Mercosur -- comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay -- launching negotiations on a preferential trade agreement later this week.India will also start technical negotiations on Saturday for a PTA with the Southern African Customs Union, which consists of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland.
Political and economic alliances with a view to strengthening Latin American integration are subtly shifting with a growing distance between Chávez and Lula
Brazil wants a "goodwill gesture" from Venezuela before its Congress votes it into the Mercosur trade bloc, but President Hugo Chavez's government indicated Thursday it won't be extending an olive branch any time soon.
