Mercosur deal ‘not ready’, Commission maintains amid calls to swiftly conclude talks
Ends Europe | 10 September 2024
Mercosur deal ‘not ready’, Commission maintains amid calls to swiftly conclude talks
by Christian Ernhede
The trading blocs are still at odds after another round of technical negotiations in Brasilia, Brazil, last week that aimed to advance the long-running negotiations on a trade agreement.
“The EU’s focus remains on resolving the outstanding issues, ensuring that the agreement delivers on the EU’s sustainability goals while respecting the EU’s sensitivities in the agricultural sector,” a Commission spokesperson told ENDS Europe. “The Commission’s assessment is that we are not ready to conclude negotiations yet.”
The EU’s ambition to include additional safeguards for biodiversity and climate were formalised in an addendum, put forward in February last year, to the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, which was concluded in 2019 but blocked after EU member states failed to ratify the deal. However, Mercosur negotiators responded with calls for new potential measures to counter domestic EU climate and environmental legislation impacting exports from the bloc.
A Commission official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was more hopeful that negotiations are moving forward. “There’s still various sticking points [but] we’re optimistic,” the official told ENDS Europe. “But it could go either way – it could happen this year [or] not.”
The Commission previously harboured hopes to conclude talks on the Mercosur trade agreement in 2023.
The latest round of talks comes as leaders from 11 member states – Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Sweden – sent a letter to Commission president Ursula von der Leyen last week calling for a conclusion of the EU-Mercosur trade deal this year.
“All elements are in place to allow for a rapid conclusion of negotiations by the end of 2024 – on the basis of the political agreement reached in 2019 and supplemented by additional commitments negotiated since then,” reads the letter, seen by ENDS Europe.
They equally called on von der Leyen to move beyond the current technical talks. “More than extending technical negotiations… a political decision is required [and] following the European election, now is the right moment to finalise the agreement,” the letter adds.
Despite the still-ongoing talks, the 11 leaders hailed the trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc as a “comprehensive agreement that… will help foster and promote more inclusive and sustainable economic development for both regions”.
Other member states, notably France, expressed opposition to the agreement earlier this year, following resistance from protesting farmers. “We have some countries that are not totally onboard and they have their own populistic issues… which cause… some political interferences,” the Commission official acknowledged, while pointing to looming challenges to get any potential deal ratified within the EU. “At member state level, that’s where it gets tricky”.
