S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 At a meeting held in Ramallah, in the West Bank, yesterday and today (17th), negotiators for the Mercosur and Palestine have decided to seek to sign a free trade agreement before the year ends.<\/p>\n
According to a communiqu\u00e9 issued by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry (Itamaraty), the two delegations \u201chave agreed to the deadline of signing the treaty during the Mercosur Summit," which is due December in Montevideo, Uruguay. The latter country holds the rotating presidency of the South American bloc, which also includes Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.<\/p>\n
According to the Itamaraty, the Palestinian delegation, headed by the minister of National Economy, Hasan Abu Libdeh, has informed that the Palestinian National Authority\u2019s president, Mahmoud Abbas, will attend the Mercosur Summit.<\/p>\n
The communiqu\u00e9 states that \u201cthe negotiation of this agreement reflects the support from Mercosur countries to an independent, economically viable Palestine that will coexist peacefully with all its neighbours.\u201d The bloc\u2019s delegation was headed by the director of Integration of the Uruguayan Ministry of Foreign Relations, Valeria Csukasi.<\/p>\n
According to the communiqu\u00e9, Libdeh stated that the signing of the agreement \u201cis very important and will contribute to the building of Palestinian institutions.\u201d The Palestinians are seeking the recognition of their state by the United Nations. The request is being considered by the UN Security Council, but is opposed by the United States, which has veto powers.<\/p>\n
Brazil and other South American countries have already recognized Palestine formally, and support its entry into the UN as a permanent member. According to the Itamaraty, the two delegations meeting in Ramallah highlighted \u201cthe importance of boosting economic and commercial ties, sharing experience with regard to economic development, and cooperating in the field of training.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea of a trade agreement between the Mercosur and Palestine was launched in 2009 during Abbas\u2019 visit to Brazil, but the Palestinians had already expressed their willingness to negotiate earlier, because in 2007, the South American bloc signed a similar deal with Israel, which occupies the Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n
In 2008, for instance, during the 2nd Summit of South American-Arab Countries, in Doha, Qatar, the PNA\u2019s foreign minister, Riad Malki, said in an interview that if the Mercosur had already signed the agreement with the Israelis, it should also sign with Palestine.<\/p>\n
Approximately 10 days ago, in an interview to ANBA, the director of the Middle East Department at the Itamaraty, Carlos Ceglia, said he expects the agreement with Palestine to be signed by the end of 2012. If what was said at the meeting over the last two days in Ramallah proves true, the forecast will be brought forward a year.<\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Delegations met in Ramallah, West Bank, and set a goal of signing a free trade agreement by the South American bloc\u2019s upcoming summit, due late this year in Montevideo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-foreign-affairs"},"wps_subtitle":"Delegations met in Ramallah, West Bank, and set a goal of signing a free trade agreement by the South American bloc\u2019s upcoming summit, due late this year in Montevideo.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}