US reject 4+1 agreement with Mercosur.

[bemildred]

I remember all the "service economy" bullshit from back when the
British Empire was disintegrating.

Speaking at the Chamber of Commerce about bilateral trade relations between United States and Brazil, Mr. Allgeier made it quiet clear that the “four + one” initiative launched by Brasilia, “is something which does not interest the US”.

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Mr. Allgeier supported his position saying that the US is ever less dependent on industry but more in the services sector based on information and therefore “intellectual property, transparency and legal protection for investments have become essential to any negotiation”.

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Brazil and the US have repeatedly clashed over the hard core of the free trade agreement, particularly regarding agriculture and intellectual property. Brasilia is demanding an end to the approximately 20 billion US dollars farm support plan, but Washington refuses to include it in the founding FTAA agreement and would rather address the subsidies issue in World Trade Organization talks which would also include other countries involved in farm support such as European Union, Japan, South Korea.

The WTO agenda which is scheduled to address the issue next July, “should help us discuss the issue simultaneously in both forums”, argued US Representative Allgeier who added that there’s “a serious problem in Brazil”, which is the lack of protection to copyright and patents.

MercoPress