Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders and Cuban President Fidel Castro made an agreement last week, giving Cuba access to free trade in the region. The Declaration of Bridgetown, which was signed at the close of the one-day CARICOM-Cuba summit in Barbados, pursues to strengthen cooperation and build links in the areas of trade, education, health, culture and sports.

Dominican Vice President Rafael Alburquerque signed a communiqué last week together with the foreign ministers of the South American Common Market (MERCOSUR), to establish a work route and the start of negotiations towards the signing of a Free Trade Agreement between MERCOSUR and the Dominican Republic. Local newspaper El Diario Libre reported that negotiations with MERCOSUR´s member stated –Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay- will put the Dominican Republic in the threshold of new business opportunities.

Posadas Group, Mexico´s largest hotel firm, agreed to buy government-owned Mexicana Airlines for $165.5 million. Posadas Group beat out a bid from Grupo Xtra, the holding company for a large pharmaceutical distributor. The purchase by Posadas Group is to be completed by December 16 and the new owner will assume all of Mexicana´s debt and lease obligations, bringing the total transaction to nearly $1.5 billion, according to Adolfo Crespo y Vivo, Mexicana´s vice president of public relations.

Brazil´s Institute of Applied Economic Research (IEPA) downgraded the country´s economic growth forecasts both in 2005 and 2006. The quarterly report forecasts Brazil will expand 2,3 percent instead of 3,5 percent as previously announced, and 3,4 percent in 2006, down from 4 percent. The latest forecast has been interpreted as a quick reply to a similar bearish outlook earlier in the week from Brazil´s main business organization, CNI, National Industry Confederation.

The US and Peru struck a wide-ranging trade agreement last week following 18 months of talks that had been mired in disagreements over agricultural and intellectual property issues. “An agreement with Peru is a key building block in our strategy to advance free trade within our hemisphere,” said Rob Portman, the US Trade Representative, after announcing the deal in Washington alongside Alfredo Ferrero, Peru´s trade and tourism minister.

Uruguay and Cuba are interested in resuming negotiations for an economic and trade complementation agreement between Havana and Mercosur. “The agreement could be very important in trying to overcome the four-decade-long United States trade embargo on Cuba,” said Uruguayan Foreign Affairs minister Reynaldo Gargano earlier this week in Montevideo, following a meeting with visiting Cuban Deputy Foreign Secretary Rafael Dausa.