ISDS Case Map
Mercosur
While the world was focused on the tragic events taking place in Lebanon and northern Israel, something very disturbing happened in South America last week. The trading bloc known as Mercosur (the South American common market), at its summit meeting in the Argentine city of Cordoba, formally supported Venezuela's bid for one of the two Latin American seats on the United Nations Security Council.
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said on Friday that his government had formally requested the accession to the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) as an associate member.
Pakistani Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan will visit Argentina and Brazil for the signing of the Framework Agreement on Trade between Pakistan and Mercosur - a customs union comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay.
Is South American integration doomed, as much of the press reports? Or is there steady progress towards wider and deeper union, as the agenda of the Mercosur summit in Cordoba, Argentina, on 20-21 July, suggests?
Israel and Mercosur (Mercado Comun del Sur, the Common Market of the South, comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay) are making progress in negotiations for a free-trade agreement. Mercosur and Israel representatives held intensive discussions last week.
Brazil proposed in Montevideo a “new deal” for Mercosur and requested a “credit of confidence” from Uruguay, which has bitterly complained about the group's functioning and is moving closer to United States.
When Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attends the IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) summit in Brazil on September 13, one of the main issues on the agenda is the possibility of a trilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the regional groupings in Latin America and South Africa.
Despite the promised benefits for both sides, and in particular for Mercosur, there are few chances for significant changes to occur in the EU's protectionism in its agricultural sector which would favour Mercosur. Considering this, Mercosur countries should be more concerned that the signature of an agreement based on limited market access concessions for few products is not an important step forward.
A deeply divided Latin America, in the midst of several growing conflicts, meets with the European Union 25 leaders in the framework of the two regions' fourth summit.
Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez, often cited as an example of Latin America's leftward shift, and President Bush agreed Thursday to deeper ties and talks that could lead to a free-trade pact with Washington.
