The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, considered this Wednesday “urgent and extremely important” that Mercosur conclude a free trade agreement with the European Union before advancing in negotiations with China, during a visit to Uruguay, country which has started trade negotiations with Beijing. .
“We will intensify our discussions with the EU and we will sign this agreement so that we can immediately discuss an agreement between China and Mercosur. I think it is possible,” said Lula, who began his third term as head of the largest economy on January 1. in Latin America, after a meeting in Montevideo with his Uruguayan counterpart, Luis Lacalle Pou.
The draft free trade agreement between the EU and the South American Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay), concluded in June 2019 after twenty years of negotiations, has never been ratified and is causing a wave of criticism in Europe. , in particular by the agricultural sector and environmentalists.
Negotiations to continue with China
Negotiated by the European Commission on behalf of the EU countries, the treaty will not be definitively ratified until it has been ratified by the parliaments of all 27 member states.
The Uruguayan president responded that despite the ongoing negotiations between Uruguay and China, “there is no obstacle to inform Brazil, Argentina, of what is being negotiated.”
Montevideo’s negotiations with Beijing, as well as its request to enter the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP) without the consent of its Mercosur partners, have generated tensions between the members.
Luis Lacalle Pou wanted to reassure his partners, stressing that Uruguay belongs to Mercosur, a South American economic integration block that represents a market of 300 million people, and that “we have this vocation unalterable.”
Source: BFM TV
