President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Monday, during a trip to Berlin, that he expects the European Union to “decide” soon whether or not it wants to conclude a “balanced” free-trade agreement with Mercosur, the trade alliance formed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and that it is still possible to sign a deal this week.
“I discussed with Chancellor [Olaf] Scholz the efforts we are making to conclude the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union. It’s been almost 23 years of negotiations,” Lula said during a joint press conference with the head of the German government.
“Bringing our regions closer together is central to building a multipolar world and strengthening multilateralism,” Lula said.
A Brazilian reporter asked Lula about the fact that the EU’s trade commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, recently canceled a trip to the Mercosur summit, a sign the blocs might not strike a deal this year. Lula replied that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who currently holds the EU’s rotational presidency, might still attend the summit in Rio.
Lula also commented on remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said on Saturday that the current draft “is not working,” and that products imported from Mercosur would have “a disgusting carbon footprint.”
“It isn’t Macron only. Macron, [Nicolas] Sarkozy, all [French] presidents, [Jacques] Chirac, our comrade in the Socialist Party, François Hollande … none of them proposed a deal with Mercosur because they have political and financial problems with French [agricultural] producers.”
Last year, we showed how opposition to the Mercosur-EU trade deal was one of the rare issues on which Emmanuel Macron and far-right politician Marine Le Pen, his runoff adversary in the 2022 French presidential race, agreed.
“We respect their position. What I cannot say yet is that we are not going to sign a deal”, Lula said. “While I can still believe that it is possible to reach that deal, I will strive for it.”
Mr. Scholz said he’s “very impressed” with Lula’s “ambition and engagement” to conclude a deal with the EU.
“I’m convinced that it will be possible to reach a majority in both bodies, both the Council [of the European Union] and the [European] Parliament, once negotiations are concluded,” Mr. Scholz added.
Mercosur and the EU reached an agreement in principle in 2019 — but ratification has remained elusive, with each side left frustrated by the other’s demands. Mercosur members have voiced grievances over the EU’s demands for additional climate commitments that could trigger sanctions if unfulfilled.
EU countries, meanwhile, resent that Brazil wants to exclude a previously agreed-upon provision that would allow EU companies to bid on Mercosur public procurements.
Search
