MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mercosur-EU discussions.

The European Union and Mercosur will be exchanging this Friday the additional trade liberalization proposals that were requested following the last round of talks held in March.

Specifically Mercosur will be requesting greater European Union market access for its agricultural exports for which the Europeans insist on import quotas such as beef, grains, sugar, rice, olive oil, dairy produce and tobacco. The EU so far has offered enlarged import quotas and preferential tariffs.

However Mercosur will insist in the full elimination of tariffs on farm produce based on a 1 to 10 years progressive timetable that will be enforceable once the free trade agreement is signed.

Mercosur agro-industrial sales to the EU total 3,6 billion US dollars annually that is not considered an important volume for the 15 countries block, although for Uruguay they represent 29% of its exports; 15% for Argentina; 3% for Brazil and 3,2% for Paraguay.

The European Commission however will not reveal its list of requests to Mercosur before they are officially presented in the discussion table, said the EU Trade Commissar Office spokesperson.

Other areas of interest to be considered in the coming round are services, government purchasing and investments. But in services the idea is that the Mercosur-EU discussion process becomes more compatible with the current negotiations at the World Trade Organization.