News and Analysis • Volume 12 • Number 19 • 28th May 2008

Latin America and EU Confront Social Issues, Trade at Lima Summit

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Poverty, famine, climate change, and trade were some of the issues that featured prominently at the fifth Latin American, Caribbean, and European Union Summit, held in Lima from 16-17 May. The more than 50 heads of state and government who attended the meeting reached consensus on the need for action on several critical social issues but failed to resolve ongoing disputes on matters of trade.

The Lima Declaration, the official output of the meeting, contains a strategy with concrete objectives to combat poverty over the next ten years, according to the EU External Relations Commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner. Indeed, nations committed to reaching specific goals by 2010 including the eradication of malnutrition, the universalisation of health services for pregnant women, universal access to pre-school education, as well as the improvement of living conditions for vulnerable groups. However, effective finance mechanisms to reach these objectives were not discussed, casting doubts on how countries in the region that face sweeping levels of poverty, inequality, and low levels of growth will reach such objectives.

Commercial interests were also an important part of the agenda and a source of tension. EU Commissioner José Manuel Barroso demanded more flexibility from Argentina’s President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who was representing MERCOSUR, the Southern Common Market Bloc that includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Barroso emphasised the need for MERCOSUR countries to open up their industrial goods and services markets both in the Doha Round and the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) talks between the two continental trade blocs. Negotiations in both forums have seen meagre progress. Fernández de Kirchner replied forcefully that negotiations are in essence a trade-off and thus “nobody gives away anything in exchange for nothing.”

On the whole, the Lima Summit was a rather peaceful and uneventful meeting particularly if compared with the Ibero-American Summit held in Chile in 2007, in which Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Juan Carlos, King of Spain, were involved in a diplomatic argument.

The next Latin America and European Union Summit will take place in Spain in 2010.

ICTSD reporting; “Expectativas Cumplidas,” BBC MUNDO, 18 May 2008; “Cumbre de Lima: drama y diplomacia,” BBC MUNDO, 16 May 2008; “La V Cumbre UE-América Latina arranca centrada en la lucha contra la pobreza,” EL PAIS, 16 May 2008.