On November 4, 2015, the twelfth meeting of the Joint Council on Trade and Investments was held in Asunción, Paraguay. The U.S. delegation was led by Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the Western Hemisphere John Melle. Didier Olmedo, Director General for Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, led the Paraguayan delegation. The two governments discussed a range of bilateral trade and investment issues of mutual interest including the operationalization of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and associated Action Plan, which the United States and Paraguay signed on June 18, 2015 in Washington. The United States pledged continued support of Paraguay’s efforts to strengthen the legal protection and enforcement of IPR, as part of its overall strategy to improve the investment climate in Paraguay.
