|
Given the discouraging prospects of the coming trade liberalization negotiations in the framework of the World Trade Organization, Mercosur and the European Union decided in Brussels to resume the interrupted talks.
Since 1995 Mercosur and EU have been holding talks to create the world's largest free trade area with 680 million people, which currently has an annual bilateral trade of US$ 40 billion.
"We did a sincere and realistic review of the situation and agreed on a road map to advance," reported Argentine Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna who headed the Argentine delegation to the ministerial meeting in Brussels last Friday.
The original plan not only includes trade but also a political and cooperation association, which should have been signed by the end of 2005.
However in the Brussels summit no deadline was established but rather a calendar of technical and ministerial meetings to be held between next November and early 2006 to advance "towards an ambitious and balanced" agreement.
"The most important outcome of the meeting was that the EU accepted the concept of a "special and differentiated" treatment for Mercosur, said Mr. Lavagna's office.
This basically means that since the European block is so much more developed and integrated, they should liberate trade at a quicker pace than the South American block, emphasizing on those areas of greater interest for Mercosur such as agriculture and agro-industry.
Before the meeting Mr. Lavagna had anticipated he would be requesting the agreement helped to "reduce socioeconomic differences" between both blocks.
Brussels is demanding greater protection for investments; participation in government procurement and liberalization of financial and telecommunication services, as well as a reduction in industrial goods' tariffs, which is considered a sensitive area for Brazilian and Argentine industry.
"There's substantial progress to be achieved", said Benita Ferrero-Waldner EU Foreign Affairs Commissar.
Brazilian Development Minister Luiz Fernando Furlan admitted that with this new focus "there are great possibilities of signing an agreement in 2006".
Mr. Lavagna who arrived in Brussels suggesting that Mercosur-EU trade relations had to be "rebalanced" incorporating new items such as "differential treatment", before returning to Buenos Aires said two objectives had been achieved, "relaunch politically the negotiation and ratification of the strategic interest" in the discussions.
EU Trade Commissar Peter Mandelson was head of the EU delegation.
This article appeared originally in Mercopress - www.mercopress.com.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.