Paraguay
The United States and Paraguay recently negotiated the Trade and Investment Framework Agreeement, establishing a platform for the two countries to discuss a range of bilateral economic issues.
U.S. trade officials acknowledged Uruguay and Paraguay’s decision to drop out of talks on the proposed Trade in International Services agreement.
Paraguay’s foreign minister Eladio Loizaga said that there is no date for the several times suspended Mercosur summit, but a technical meeting is scheduled for next week in Montevideo when the issue, among others will be addressed. Nevertheless he insisted that the different bodies of Mercosur “are working normally”.
If Paraguay were to enter the Pacific Alliance with its current distribution of land and no progress towards land reform, those who currently hold land—agribusinesses and local elites—will continue to reap the benefits while continuing to displace workers and exacerbating slum conditions in larger cities.
When the Paraguayan Senate approved the “political judgment” against Fernando Lugo on June 22, it unleashed the biggest political crisis in the Mercosur in the last 20 years. The dust still hasn’t settled, but it’s clear that nothing will be the same since the shake-up.
Venezuela’s incorporation to Mercosur as full member seems closer as the Paraguayan Senate readies to consider the issue following on political agreements worked out by President Fernando Lugo.
Mercosur presidential summit next week in Brazil has on the table an agenda of several highly sensitive issues that could deepen the rift between senior members Argentina and Brazil and junior members Paraguay and Uruguay, according to Uruguayan parliamentary sources.
As was anticipated Mercosur senior members Argentina and Brazil proposed Friday an increase of the common external tariff, (AEC) for certain products, and as was expected junior members Uruguay and Paraguay rejected the idea.
Paraguay supports Venezuela’s bid for full membership of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), visiting Paraguayan Foreign Minister Ruben Ramirez said here Tuesday.
Fernando Lugo, presidential candidate for Paraguayan opposition Alianza Patriotica para el Cambio showed himself against a Free Trade Agreement with the US in case he wins the elections.
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.
The Ministers of Health of ten South American countries issued a
joint declaration on intellectual property committing themselves to
avoid "TRIPS plus" provisions in bilateral and regional trade agreements,
to facilitate the use of compulsory licensing and parallel importing and to
avoid broadening the scope of patentability and the extension of
patentable areas.
Government officials yesterday dismissed a report that the proposed free-trade agreement (FTA) between Taiwan and its diplomatic ally Paraguay is in jeopardy, due to pressure from other members of Mercosur, a South American trade bloc of which Paraguay is a member.
A Taiwanese official delegation will visit Paraguay later this month to negotiate groundwork for the two nations’ Free Trade Agreement (FTA) while Argentina acknowledged it had teamed up with Brazil to try and force Paraguay into switching its diplomatic allegiance from Taipei to Beijing.
Taiwan is probing the possibility of signing a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Paraguay, a government official confirmed yesterday.
Negotiations on a free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) have entered their decisive stage.
