Tag: Mercosur

Uruguay says pursuing China trade deal with or without Mercosur partners

by Hugo Olazar Agence France-Presse ASUNCION, Paraguay (AFP) — Uruguay insisted on Thursday that it would pursue a free trade deal with China with or without its partners in the South American Mercosur trade bloc. As Argentina appealed for a common front at a Mercosur summit in Paraguay, Uruguay’s President Luis Lacalle Pou stood his ground, announcing that delegations from his country and China would be meeting “in a few days” to begin free trade […]

Santos, Rousseff call for regional meeting to combat Zika outbreak

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and his Brazilian counterpart, Dilma Rousseff, on Wednesday (January 27) called for a regional meeting next week to launch a joint battle against the mosquito-borne Zika virus. Brazil and Colombia, so far the worst-affected countries in Latin America, have been grappling with the virus which has been spreading at an alarming rate. Rousseff said a Mercosur meeting with other leaders in the region had been set to take place in […]

Argentine economic growth to speed up from 2017, minister says

Argentina’s economy will edge higher this year as the new government lifts interventionist controls, later fuelling growth of about 4.5 percent annually between 2017 and 2019, Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said on Thursday (January 14). “With our numbers we calculate an estimated (economic growth) of between 0.5 percent and 1 percent this year in 2016, but above all with much stronger growth in the second half of the year,” he said, during a news conference […]