Brazil aims to conclude free trade agreements between the South
American free trade bloc Mercosur and
Singapore and
South Korea by next year, as it also eyes deals with several other Asian countries, a Brazilian diplomat said on Tuesday.
Mercosur will hold initial trade talks with Vietnam and
Indonesia later this year, while it could seek to expand an existing trade deal with
India and is also interested in an accord with
Japan, said Reinaldo José de Almeida Salgado, the Foreign Ministry's secretary for bilateral negotiations with Asia.
Brazil is the largest
economy in the four-country Mercosur bloc that also includes Uruguay, Paraguay and
Argentina and therefore plays a major role in its trade negotiations held by the group.