ISDS Case Map
Mercosur
With US foreign policy heavily focused on Iraq and the WTO Doha Round negotiations all but paralyzed, the European Union seems to be disregarding the wide open door to further regional integration and economic influence in Latin America that could be achieved through a free trade arrangement with Mercosur.
Presidents Néstor Kirchner (Argentina), Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Brasil), Nicanor Duarte (Paraguay) y Tabaré Vázquez (Uruguay) met at the Río de Janeiro summit between 18 & 19 January in order to advance and consolidate the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). The focus was less on institutional strengthening of the block but more on looking for mechanisms to resolve the deep asymmetry in trading relations between nations.
Brazil today said it would ratify the Mercosur preferential trade agreement (PTA) with India by June this year. However only Brazil would ratify, not the other members of Mercosur.
A free trade agreement (FTA) is expected to be concluded soon between India and the MERCOSUR group of South American countries, visiting Brazilian foreign minister, Mr Celso Amorim, today indicated. “It is partly our fault that the bilateral trade between India and Brazil is still very small ~ around $3 billion,” Mr Amorim said at an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The association of European banana producers APEB has announced that it will request the EU to leave any discussion of the banana import tariff out of the negotiations on economic collaboration or free trade agreements with the Andean countries in South America and with the countries in Central America.
Uruguay has warned that it will consider downgrading its status in Mercosur if the regional trade bloc prevents it from making a bilateral trade deal with the US.
Mercosur, a regional group of four Latin American countries (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil), has expressed its willingness to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with Pakistan.
'Does Mercosur have a political agenda?' asks the Washington-based Council on Foreign Affairs.
Presidents from Uruguay and Brazil, meeting in Colonia Monday, seem to have smoothed strained economic and political ties with promises of stronger bilateral relations and a new boost to the battered Mercosur block, although Argentina, just fifty kilometers away was not present at the summit.
The Brazilian Foreign Relations Minister, Celso Amorin, argued that Mercosur would prefer to negotiate bilaterally with the US than to try to save the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas.
