BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina says that South America’s Mercosur trade bloc has struck a “strategic association” trade deal with the European Union.
The Argentine Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that the “historic” agreement was clinched in the Belgian capital of Brussels following two decades of negotiations. The Mercosur bloc includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The ministry said that the Mercosur-EU association will mean the integration of a market of some 800 million people, about a fourth of the world’s gross domestic product and more than $100 billion in bilateral trade of goods and services.
