
The Southern Common Market (Mercosur) hopes to clinch the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) during the two-day regional bloc's Summit starting Thursday in Montevideo with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the main guest.

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva welcomed Uruguay's President-elect Yamandú Orsi on Friday at the Planalto Palace to discuss the possible Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and the European Union (EU) as well as other issues.

France's Parliament was unusually united this week in rejecting the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), thus yielding to protests from local farmers who fear unfair competition. The Senate gave its thumbs down Thursday, just one day after the Lower House did the same by 484 votes against 70.

Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard announced this week that his company would not be selling meat imported from the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) in a move to prevent the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union from pulling through. France's largest supermarket planned on suspending meat imports from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay “in solidarity with the agricultural sector.”

French President Emmanuel Macron told his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei once again during their meeting Sunday at Casa Rosada that his country would not sign the European Union (EU)-Southern Common Market (Mercosur) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) “as is.”

France will not be signing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the European Union and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), the Russian news service Sputnik reported Thursday. In fact, Paris will do its utmost to block it.

Presidents Javier Milei of Argentina and Emmanuel Macron of France got together Friday at the Elysee Palace ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to discuss ongoing world affairs and bilateral issues. It is the South American leader's 12th trip abroad since his inauguration on Dec. 10, 2023.

By Oliver Pieper - The free trade deal between the European Union and the South American trade bloc Mercosur could become the world's largest agreement, involving a market of a total of 780 million people. But in late March, French President Emmanuel Macron not only described it as “a very bad agreement,” he even suggested it should be “left behind” and called for “a new agreement.”

The Mercosur/European Union trade and cooperation agreement, “is a complicated process but it is also a matter of time and timing”, according to Rupert Schlegelmilch, chief EU negotiator of the accord who recently visited Mercosur country and associate members to meet government officials and business groups to confirm EU's determination to finish the deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron told a business forum in São Paulo that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the South American Common Market (Mercosur) and the European Union (EU) needed to be ”renegotiated from scratch,” Agencia Brasil reported.