ISDS Case Map
Mercosur
Brazil on Monday escalated a growing trade fight with Argentina by increasing the bureaucratic obstacles for importing about 10 perishable products including apples, raisins, and potatoes, a senior Brazilian government official told Reuters.
Argentina's move to nationalize a 51% stake in the country's YPF oil company from Spain's Repsol this week may hamper efforts to finalize free-trade talks between the European Union and the Mercosur trade bloc later this year, European officials said Friday.
Argentina’s controversial new import restrictions came into effect on Wednesday as part of the legislation on the trading sector which gives the government bureaucracy more powers to control and restrict imports.
The Palestinian Authority signed a free trade agreement with the Mercosur trade group Tuesday during the organizations' presidential summit in Uruguay.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez needs to wait a bit longer for his country's entry into Mercosur, the Common Market of the South founded in 1991 by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Though the group feels they found a procedural move to get around the opposition of Paraguay's legislature, the move will take additional time.
Mercosur is expected to sign a free trade agreement with Palestine on the second day of the summit following a similar deal signed with Israel in 2007.
Fears were growing this week that Europe could be swamped by South American beef imports under a new trade deal with the region.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica said that Mercosur “is not moving forward or backwards” but is certainly working much better than the European Union where old experienced nations “made a mess of it”. Nevertheless, Uruguay will not stay put “licking its wounds”, it will look for other trade links.
The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Tjekero Tweya, tabled a motion in Parliament on Thursday for the ratification of a preferential trade agreement (PTA) between the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) and South America's trade bloc, called the Common Market of the South (Mercosur).
Little has been said about how the Caribbean, Central America and eventually almost all of Latin America will in a matter of years be competing directly in Europe, writes David Jessop
