Foreign Minister Tonio Borg will be representing the Prime Minister at this week's summit between the EU, Latin America and Caribbean countries to be held in Lima on Friday and Saturday.

About 60 heads of state and of government are expected to gather in Lima for the fifth EU-LAC summit held every two years with the aim of strengthening strategic partnership between the two regions.

The Lima summit will tackle two areas of common interest: Poverty, inequality and inclusion as part of the social dimension and sustainable development, including climate change, the environment and energy as part of the environmental dimension.

Data published yesterday by Eurostat, the EU's statistical arm, shows that over the past seven years, Malta managed to reduce its trade imbalance with the Latin America and Caribbean states. Last year, Malta's trade deficit with the region stood at €5 million against an imbalance of €13 million in 2000.

Last year, Malta exported €22 million in goods to the region when the value of imports reached €27 million. In the year 2000, Malta exported €6 million worth of goods and imported €19 million worth of products.

Last year, EU27 exports of primary products to the LAC countries amounted to €7.6 billion and imports to €54.6 billion, resulting in a deficit of €47 billion.