MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil wants full access to EU farm markets

The Brazilian Deputy Trade Representative before the World Trade Organization, WTO Pablo Estavillet de Mezquita argued in favour of Mercosur countries having “free of quotas access” to European Union agriculture markets.

Mr. Estavillet de Mezquita said in Geneva that if the EU and Mercosur reach an association agreement, "they will have access to Mercosur markets", and therefore it's only natural to allow "access to Mercosur competitive exports to EU".

The Brazilian negotiator who was participating in an agriculture commerce discussions seminar added that the list of farm concessions the EU is preparing and will announce this week in Brussels "are not a gesture of generosity" since for a group of "competitive exporters" these quotas "don't have the same meaning as if we're talking about an island". "We are interested in markets free of quotas, even if this means cheaper prices".

As to Brussels latest proposal to the WTO to end farm subsidies, Mr. Estavillet Mezquita replied "we love the idea of an end to all export subsidies".

However the Brazilian diplomat was cautious about the EU initiative which was conditioned to similar actions by other partners, and the end of all subsidies and support to exports in other areas.

"It's hard to establish a parallelism between market access and the end of all subsidies, because ending all export credits does not seem realistic", said Mr. Estavillet Mezquita recalling that the EU so far has been unable to eliminate credits to industrial exports, such as airplanes.

"The purpose of the WTO Doha round is to liberalize all commerce and it's not acceptable to leave aside agriculture", stressed the Brazilian negotiator who believes liberalization will benefit "even developed countries", because the "subsidized model" has been unable to incorporate young people to the camp or save family farming.