SAO PAULO -(Dow Jones)- Top Brazilian ministers want members of South America's biggest trade bloc to present individual proposals in three key areas when negotiating a Free Trade Area of the Americas accord with the U.S., local daily O Estado de S. Paulo reported Wednesday.
Previously, members of the Southern Cone Common Market, or Mercosur as the bloc is known, had argued for presenting a united front to increase bargaining power with the U.S. at the FTAA talks.
That strategy will still hold for trade in agricultural and industrial goods, but now Brazil wants Mercosur members to submit individual proposals for trade rules governing investment, government purchases and liberalization of the services sector.
The decision to pursue this new strategy was made by Brazil's ministers of foreign relations, finance, agriculture and industrial development and foreign trade in a Tuesday meeting, the paper said.
Brazil will ask other Mercosur countries to approve the idea at a meeting scheduled for the end of this month in Paraguay.
Mercosur members include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Chile and Bolivia are associate members.
-By Andrea Welsh, Dow Jones Newswires; 5511 3145 1481; andrea.welsh@dowjones.com
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