MarketWatch
The government of Uruguay, in a move to expand investment in new industries and technologies, has set aside land for an electric vehicle assembly plant expected to begin construction next month by US electric car pioneer ZAP.
The State of Montevideo has granted an acre of land to ZAP within an industrial and technology park established for projects of national interest through CAPIT (Comision Administradora del Parque Industrial y Tecnologico del Cerro). According to Fernando Cancela, ZAP’s Director of International Affairs, ZAP plans to break ground by next month on a comprehensive facility for the assembly of light electric vehicles, including the Xebra brand, three-wheeled electric sedans and trucks, the ZAPPY3 scooter, and ZAP electric bicycles for distribution throughout South America.
MERCOSUR is a trade agreement established in South America to promote free trade and fluid movement of goods, people and currency. The region represents a population of over 250 million in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. MERCOSUR-certified products exported within the region enjoy little or no taxes.
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Peru, Chile and Brazil are in the sweet spot.
San Jose Mercury News
Every segment of the mining industry and the companies that support it continue to enjoy great success with no end in sight despite trouble on Wall Street, industry leaders said Monday at a national conference and trade show.
Much of the optimism can be attributed to the unprecedented demand from China and India, said Harold Quinn, president and CEO of the National Mining Association.
“The boom in worldwide mining activity and the equipment to bring those products to market has arguably been the biggest economic success story of the year,” he said at MINExpo International 2008, which opened Monday in Las Vegas. He expects the gathering to be the largest ever with more than 35,000 attendees—twice as many as the last such expo in 2004.
Timothy W. Sullivan, president and CEO of equipment manufacturer Bucyrus International Inc. and chairman of MINExpo 2008, said the record size of this year’s exhibition is an indication of the strong market conditions for mining and mining equipment.
“We’ve had an unprecedented run over the last few years, thanks largely to the developing world’s powerful and sustained demand for copper, gold, iron ore, coal and other products of mining,” he said. “We see nothing near term to dampen the bullish outlook.”
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News | Africa – Reuters.com
Peru and Colombia, frustrated by slow region-to-region free trade talks between the EU and South America’s four Andean countries, have formally asked Brussels to pursue swifter bilateral negotiations with them.
The free-market presidents of Peru and Colombia made the proposal this month, trade officials told Reuters, underscoring their split with Bolivia and Ecuador, whose leftist leaders are more wary of liberalising trade with Europe.
The EU has long favoured negotiating free trade deals on a region-to-region basis as it tries to replicate its multilateral model around the world and to foster bigger, regional markets that are more attractive to its exporters.
But time is running short as the term of the European Commission, the EU’s executive, is due to end in November 2009.
The United States has already negotiated a trade deal with Colombia but it has been blocked by opposition in Congress. A U.S.-Peru trade deal is due to come into force in January.
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