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Mercosur, EU to exchange trade deal offers in May

Xinhua, April 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Mercosur, or the Southern Common Market, will exchange the first official trade deal offers ahead of formal negotiations for a commercial agreement with the European Union (EU), Uruguayan Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa announced Monday.

"The relaunching of negotiations with the EU, which will take place on May 11 in Brussels, is an important step for the future of Mercosur," said Nin Novoa, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the trading bloc in Latin America.

The goal of the negotiations was to promote commercial integration and the opening of borders, said Nin Novoa.

He concluded by saying that an EU deal would allow Mercosur "to have a higher capacity of adaptation and reaction in a world which is moving at ever higher speeds and threatens to leave us behind."

Made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, Mercosur started negotiations for a trade deal with the EU in 1999. Due to an unsuccessful exchange of offers, the negotiations have been halted for years. Endi