Mercosur Update

The New York Times featured a story on the front page of it's World Business section on Thursday about the Mercosur-EU talks. Apparently they've become bogged down and delayed--both parties came to the table with reduced offers, and no one was happy. The EU trade reps are reportedly putting their energies into the Doha, Qatar WTO talks instead, and Mercosur is "building itself as it negotiates" in the sense that the reality is nowhere near the state of a "customs union" with which it labels itself. The two key players, Argentina and Brazil, continue to headbutt over things like refrigerator imports. Much of my Brazil news unfortunately comes from a biased source, the Brazzil online news magazine. I cut through the spin where I can.

Here's the full article (registration required):
New Setback for Europe-Latin Trade Talks