Negotiators from the European Union and the South American bloc Mercosur are ramping up their efforts to finalise a trade accord between them, with the hopes of announcing a political deal on the margins of the WTO’s Eleventh Ministerial Conference (MC11) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, next week. The two coalitions have been negotiating an Association Agreement and related trade deal since 1999, though those talks later stalled over disagreements on sensitive topics such as agriculture. They rebooted negotiations in 2010, and later renewed their discussions last year. (See Bridges Weekly, 21 April 2016 ) The latest round was completed on 10 November in Brasilia, Brazil, with another round currently underway through 8 December in Brussels, Belgium. “We hope that we can exchange offers on most of the issues. Of course, we know that there are some sensitivities remaining, so we will have to see how far we get this week,” said EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström in Brussels this week, speaking during “EU Trade Policy Day” on 5 December. Previewing the EU-Mercosur discussions in Buenos Aires at the WTO ministerial, she noted that ministers plan to “take stock [of] where we are and if we can see the skeleton of...