Canada eyes Mercosur pact by autumn

By Olivia Le Poidevin

YAOUNDE, March 27 (Reuters) – Canada’s minister of international trade said on Friday that he hopes to conclude a free-trade agreement with South America’s Mercosur bloc by the autumn.

“We’re stepping up the negotiation timelines a little bit. Hopefully we can have negotiations every six weeks or so, and hopefully we can get it done by the fall. That is the goal we’ve set between our partners,” Maninder Sidhu told Reuters on the sidelines of a World Trade Organization ministerial conference in Cameroon.

The minister said he has had bilateral meetings with Argentina and Paraguay, and he will meet with Brazil and Uruguay on Friday on the sidelines of the WTO meeting in Yaounde, with the potential Mercosur-Canada trade agreement part of talks.

“We’re very ambitious. I think we can get it done,” he said.

Reuters earlier reported that an Argentine government official said the agreement was expected to be signed in September or October, marking roughly a year since negotiations formally restarted.

Another diplomat, based in Brazil, also told Reuters negotiations were going at a record speed and extremely well, confirming the countries would probably reach a deal this year.

Canada has intensified efforts to diversify trade amid uncertainty linked to tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. South America, especially Brazil, is a trade partner Canada cannot do without, the diplomat in Brazil said.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin in Yaounde; additional reporting by Lucinda Elliott in Montevideo, Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia; Lucila Sigal in Buenos Aires and Promit Mukherje in Ottawa; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)