Brazil and the 2-country European Union (EU) have agreed to resume stalled free-trade negotiations between the EU and South America's Mercosur trade bloc. The agreement was reached in Brasilia on Thursday during a meeting between Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso. The free-trade talks were launched in 1999 but stalled five years later when the two sides failed to reach agreement on market access. Mercosur demanded greater access to the European agricultural market, and the EU wanted Mercosur to open more to European manufactured goods. Mercosur includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and new member Venezuela.
