I'm Todd Dutche with my colleague, Professor Evan Ellis of the U.S. Army War College, Argentina.

We save it because it's good news.

However, I'll complicate the matter, not just talk about the unexpected strength of the peso,

or the dip in inflation, or the growth of business activity,

or the ability of Javier Malay to continue to perform on the world stage,

we have this.

Brazil's lula says Mercosur, Canada should advance in trade deal talks.

Professor, defining Mercosur, what I know is that Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay have sought a trade deal with Europe

that's been troubled or delayed for some years, and it's now moving forward. Is that correct?

That is correct, John. The Mercosur or European Union trade deal has actually been moving very, very slowly.

There was some question, in part because Brazil is a major agricultural producer, but many European states, really led by France, have protected their own agricultural producers and agricultural market.

And so even though that deal, which was seen as a win-win in many areas, it had been stalled over the

issue of agriculture and in some other issues of protected sectors. However, in light of the

change in U.S. tariff policies with, again, Europe facing significant increased sanctions and also

the countries of Mercosur, principally Brazil and Argentina, but also Uruguay and

Paraguay, looking to increased importance of finding alternative markets. And so suddenly, Europe

as an alternative market for the Mercosur countries has become a lot more important. So not yet clear

whether they will be able to get over the differences in agriculture

and other issues, but certainly the change in U.S. policy has increased the impulse to do that

diversification for both sides. But we'll see what happens about it. And Argentina, do I

summarize correctly that the financial institutions watching Buenos Aires are pleased with the progress or is there impatience?

Yeah. Well, certainly Argentina, especially with pro-trade, President Javier Malay, is interested in expanding a number of different deals, including Argentina, although politically skeptical, working with the Chinese,

...