The European Union and Japan have concluded negotiations on a giant free trade deal that they said was reached while “fighting the temptation of protectionism”, a message apparently directed at U.S. President Donald Trump. The deal, which the EU called its biggest ever, must be signed and ratified by both sides.
The European Union’s farm chief pressed Mercosur countries to offer market access for EU wines, spirits, olive oil and dairy goods to help seal a free-trade agreement that has been in the works for two decades.
Mercosur is confident a framework agreement with the European Union will be announced next week despite resistance from farmers in Europe to permit tariff-free beef imports, a Mercosur official said. “There is more than a 70% chance of reaching a deal,” said the official close to the negotiations that have dragged on for almost two decades.
Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez Tuesday said that there are many internal problems in the countries that make up Mercosur, but that he was also “confident” that the main achievement this year will be the free trade agreement with the European Union.
European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said Monday in Madrid that the EU bloc “hopes to announce a political agreement for this Christmas in Buenos Aires” with Mercosur “even though technical aspects remain to be discussed.”
An optimistic foreign minister Susana Malcorra said that Argentina expects the Mercosur/European Union trade agreement to be announced next December during the World Trade Organization meeting to be held in Buenos Aires, and which she described as an event of great political impact.
First vice-president of the European Union Parliament Irish lawmaker Mairead McGuinness has asked EU Commissioners for agriculture and trade for clarity on allegations that Brazil has sold meat that is unfit for consumption.
United States was given 90 days to drop a special tax exemption for the giant aerospace company Boeing because it amounts to an unlawful subsidy. The World Trade Organization (WTO) made the order after investigating a complaint from the European Union.
The European Union and Canada signed a free trade agreement on Sunday that aims to generate jobs and growth though it must still clear some 40 national and regional parliaments in Europe in the coming years to enter fully into force.
If beef is not included, there won't be any agreement, said Uruguay's foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa in anticipation of next week's meeting of European Union and Mercosur coordinators to adjust the list of goods and services the two blocks will formally exchange in mid October, the first formal meeting of its kind in fourteen years.