Uruguay has so far refused to back the Argentine-Brazilian car deal, which imposes a 35% tariff on non-Mercosur cars from 2006.Complicated though such matters are, at least Mercosur is moving again.
And at a conference in Montevideo, Uruguay's capital, earlier this month, Bank officials gave a cautious welcome to regional trade pacts such as Mercosur.
The accord should be signed at the next Mercosur summit meeting on Dec. 15 and is expected to take effect on Jan . 1 , 2001
(By contrast, most of Latin America's manufactured exports are sold within the region or to the United States).On June 21st the EU foreign ministers made a compromise aimed at allowing trade talks with Mercosur and Chile to belaunched at the summit.
Alfredo Valladão, who holds the "Mercosur chair" at l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques, a French university, thinks Brazil will continue to press for concessions by rich countries at global talks.
It would add at least one more, along the Pacific coast from Peru to Chile.Mooted at a meeting of Mercosur, the region's putative common market, in June, this plan is gathering momentum.
At least, Europe and Mercosur can now be expected to match any progress in trade liberalisation in these bodies.In this section Supermodel angst Just 55 priorities Making do Can two become one?
In fact, a plethora of them: the fortunate Latin American leader sees his peers annually at the Rio Group and the Ibero-American summit (which includes Spain, Portugal and otherwise-shunned Cuba), not to mention at sub-regional gatherings (Mercosur's presidents meet twice a year).
Mr Blair, by contrast, offered fulsome support to Brazil and Argentina in their demands for free farm trade, both in the trade talks between the European Union and Mercosur and at the WTO.President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil claims to be a fellow exponent of Mr Blair's "third way", as does his Argentine counterpart, Fernando de la Rua.
At Brazil's insistence, the Mercosur four stuck to their line that negotiations should move in three stages, with tariff cuts coming last.
