MEN­DOZA-The Mer­co­sur trade bloc-which in­cludes re­gion­al heavy­weights Brazil and Ar­genti­na-will make Venezuela a full mem­ber next month, unit­ing South Amer­i­ca's biggest grains and en­er­gy ex­porters. At a pres­i­den­tial sum­mit on Fri­day, Mer­co­sur's left­ist lead­ers al­so de­cid­ed to ex­tend Paraguay's sus­pen­sion over the ouster of Pres­i­dent Fer­nan­do Lu­go un­til democ­ra­cy is re­stored via new elec­tions, sched­uled for April 2013.

No eco­nom­ic sanc­tions were adopt­ed against Paraguay but its of­fi­cials will be banned from par­tic­i­pat­ing in Mer­co­sur meet­ings. The sus­pen­sion opened the way for Venezuela to be in­cor­po­rat­ed in­to the bloc since op­po­si­tion in Paraguay's Con­gress was the on­ly re­main­ing ob­sta­cle af­ter a six-year wait.

Brazil­ian Pres­i­dent Dil­ma Rouss­eff praised the join­ing of forces, say­ing "food and en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty are be­com­ing more and more rel­e­vant" glob­al­ly. The Mer­co­sur cus­toms union al­so agreed to al­low in­di­vid­ual mem­bers to raise tar­iffs on im­ports from out­side the bloc to up to 35 per cent on 200 prod­ucts to pro­tect lo­cal in­dus­try.

Reuters