EU-South America trade deal in sight

EU external relations commissioner Chris Patten has given positive signs that a South American trade deal is on the cards.

Patten is in Ecuador to breathe life back into drawn-out trade negotiations with Mercosur – a trade zone comprising Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil.

He has been in South America this week to try to make progress on the talks so that a deal can be struck at the EU-Latin America summit in May.

There, it is hoped, a date for concluding the talks will be announced.

“We’ve had 11 rounds of negotiations with the countries of Mercosur. And we hope that by the time of the Guadalajara summit, we will be able to announce a date that those negotiations will be concluded," said Patten.

Brussels would like to see negotiations wrapped up by the end of the year.

The EU also has its eye on a trade deal with the Andean community of Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Columbia but this is proving far more problematic.

In-fighting between the countries has restricted the EU’s ability to negotiate with the bloc as a whole.

"The pace at which we can proceed towards a free trade agreement community-to-community will really depend, in my judgment, on the progress and the speed of progress made in the Andean community," said Patten.

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