EU eases trade with Latin America at Madrid summit

Madrid, 19 May 2010 (MIA) - The EU plans to boost trade with Latin America despite warnings from some European ministers and farmers, who fear unfair competition, the BBC reported on Wednesday.

EU negotiations with the Mercosur trade bloc, frozen since 2004, will reopen. The Mercosur group embraces Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Trade deals were also reached with Central America, Peru and Colombia, following marathon talks in Madrid, A European farmers' group said a deal with Mercosur would hurt EU farming.

The new EU initiatives include a 125m-euro ($154m) Latin American Investment Facility, which EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said "could leverage investments well in excess of 3bn euros".

"We have opened a ground-breaking chapter in the EU relationship with our LAC [Latin America and Caribbean] partners," he said.

The EU is pursuing regional trade agreements while global trade talks - the so-called Doha Round - have failed to make progress.