EU and Latin America plan booming common markets.

Byline: SINIKKA TARVAINEN

As the European Union struggles to recover from the global crisis, it is increasingly looking to Latin America for new markets. An EU-Latin America summit that was held in Madrid on Tuesday raised high hopes of a better economic co-operation that could have "tremendous potential," according to EU president Herman Van Rompuy said.

Tough negotiations lay ahead, however, with European farmers preparing to put up fierce resistance against Latin American demands to flood their market with cheap meat imports. The EU agreed to relaunch stalled talks with the trade bloc Mercosur about a free trade area of nearly 800 million people, constituting one …