07-07-2016: Latin American Weekly Report

The heads of state of the four full member countries of the Pacific Alliance trade bloc promised on 1 July to strive towards more inclusive growth and greater financial integration without repeating the mistakes that led to Brexit. Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri attended the summit as an observer before flying to Brussels in an attempt to encourage the European Union (EU) to expedite a trade accord with the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) rather than adopt a more inward-looking and protectionist stance in the wake of the decision by voters in the United Kingdom to leave the union. But Mercosur has serious internal difficulties of its own, above all the flawed membership of Venezuela.