ISDS Case Map
Mercosur
India may expand the list of items on which it will offer concessional imports to the Mercosur trading bloc as the two parties work towards an FTA.
On January 25, Uruguay signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) with the United States that could ultimately dismantle Mercosur and isolate Uruguay in the southern cone.
As South American presidents gathered in Rio de Janeiro this week to negotiate regional trade and integration strategies, including the possible ascension of Bolivia as a full member of the Southern Cone trade bloc MERCOSUR, Presidents Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales challenged the bloc to abandon its free market neoliberal roots.
Discord at the two-day Mercosur summit that ended Friday left many to wonder about the future of a trade bloc that has never lived up to its promise of integrating much of South America into an influential body like the European Union.
The economic inequalities undermining unity among the countries of Mercosur will become more urgent with the likely acceptance of Bolivia as a full member at the bloc's summit being held Thursday and Friday in this Brazilian city.
Uruguay and United States will sign next week a trade and investment agreement, short of a full free trade agreement, to strengthen bilateral trade relations. If Uruguay finally signs a free trade agreement, it would help United States break Mercosur unity.
Representatives of the Mercosur and the Gulf Cooperation Council met yesterday in Rio de Janeiro to discuss a free trade agreement between both blocs.
South America's lunge toward the left is overshadowing the goal of free trade as the continent's most prominent leaders arrived in Rio for a two-day summit of the fractured Mercosur economic bloc.
The basic texts for the free trade agreement between Mercosur and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), according to Brazilian diplomats, are going to be ratified during the summit of the South American bloc, to take place on January 18th and 19th in Rio de Janeiro.
Escalating mutual recriminations and complaints between Argentina and Uruguay signaled the first day of deliberations at the Mercosur ministerial meeting in Brasilia in the same week that the group officially inaugurated its Parliament.
