BUENOS AIRES (Dow Jones)--The four nations of South American trade bloc Mercosur pledged Wednesday, during a meeting in Uruguay, that they would adopt a common position in upcoming trade talks for a hemisphere-wide Free Trade Area of the Americas accord.
"In the beginning, this refers to the offer of reducing tariffs for agricultural goods and industrial products," said Paraguayan Foreign Minister Jose Moreno Ruffinelli, after a meeting of Mercosur's four foreign ministers in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo.
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are the four permanent members of Mercosur.
The four foreign ministers also promised to maintain a united front in talks on a Mercosur free trade accord with the European Union (news - web sites) at the close of February.
Ruffinelli's comments come a day after Brazil and Argentina - the group's two biggest members - also pledged to tighten their cooperation in a separate meeting in Buenos Aires.
After that meeting, Argentine Foreign Minister Carlos Ruckauf said the two countries would come up with a single agreed list of products that they would be prepared to see tariffs lowered on.
In recent years, the four Mercosur countries have held different positions on pushing ahead with a Free Trade Area of the Americas accord, with Uruguay the most in favor and Brazil the most skeptical.
However, with all four countries facing substantial economic difficulties and united by the refusal of the United States and the European Union to slash tariffs on agricultural goods, the four Mercosur nations' positions have come more together of late.
-By Laurence Norman, Dow Jones Newswires; 5411-4311-3127; laurence.norman@dowjones.com
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