Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“In mid-June, on the margins of the G7 France summit, Japanese premier Sanae Takaichi will tell Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, that Japan wishes to begin negotiating an economic partnership agreement with the Southern Common Market — or, Mercosur, the South American customs union comprised of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The overture to the South American trade bloc, confirmed in the last week of May by Japanese officials familiar with the plan, would be the first large-scale trade negotiation launched under Takaichi’s administration. The potential for Japan is enormous — not just for international trade, but also for buttressing its free-market economic mission at home.” (06/10/26)