With Argentine Congressional approval, the free trade agreement signed by trade bloc members and Egypt in 2010 will enter into force within a month. Argentina announced it has sent its formal ratification of the Mercosur-Egypt FTA to the regional trade bloc’s...
Pacific Alliance Expansion Plans
Could the Pacific Alliance become the vehicle for the economic ties across the Pacific Rim that were the aim of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)? The four members of the trade bloc – Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru – are among Latin America’s leading advocates for...
Actively Seeking Trade Ties | Mercosur
Mercosur is looking for opportunities to do more cross-border business both within the five-member trade bloc and beyond. Foreign ministers are set to meet March 9 to discuss lowering barriers to trade among the countries that make up the “Common Market of the South”...
Pacific Alliance and Mercosur: Moving at Two Speeds?
Latin America’s economy is moving at two speeds, according to BBVA, with the Pacific Alliance gaining ground as Mercosur, the Common Market of the South, slips into reverse in 2015 and on into 2016. In its first-quarter 2016 outlook, the Spanish bank lowers its...
Mercosur’s Falling Currencies Failing to Lift Exports
One benefit of a weakening currency should be exports priced to move in the global marketplace. So the slide in value of, for example, Brazil’s real should be translating into rising exports. But that’s not happening in Brazil or other key emerging markets that the...
Comparative Economics: Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance
Call it Latin America’s controlled experiment in economics (as the Wall Street Journal did recently): Along the Western seaboard, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru embrace free trade and are working to lift restrictions on the movement of capital, goods and services,...
Suffering by Comparison
Spotlight on Pacific Alliance trade bloc casts unflattering light on Mercosur “While Pacific Alliance thrives, Mercosur withers,” headlines a recent Andres Oppenheimer opinion piece in the Miami Herald. The Pacific Alliance’s May 23 Cali summit, capped by an agreement...
Argentine Perishables to Wilt
Brazil retaliates in response to Mercosur partner’s protectionist policies Reuters reports that Brazil will end automatic import licensing for 10 perishable products from Argentina, including apples, raisins, potatoes, wheat flour, and some cheeses and wines. The...
Take a Quick Look @ Mercosur Trade in 2011
FREE report tallies members’ imports, exports, trade partners The year-end 2011 import-export trade data is in on Mercosur's four founding members – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. We’ve put the highlights together in a FREE downloadable report, that covers...
Not a Party
Countries left out of FTAs lose out on trade Proponents of the free trade agreements awaiting Congressional approval often argue their case by pointing to the boost FTAs will give to US exports. So, for instance, the US Department of Agriculture projects the US-Panama...