The worsening of the world crisis is a factor that plays in favour of advancing negotiations for the European Union and Mercosur cooperation agreement and strategic association, said Socialist Euro Deputy Luis Yañez from Spain currently visiting Montevideo.
In the current global context “it’s hard to see an advance in the free trade negotiations with the European Union” said on Wednesday the block’s High representative Ambassador Samuel Pinheiro Guimaraes.
Britain’s House of Commons strongly supports a closer bilateral relationship with Brazil, which it describes as a democratic, well governed, responsible state but regrets the hardening position of Brazil towards the Falklands and the HMS Clyde incident.
The European Union will seek to further discussions over a trade deal with Mercosur at the upcoming G20 summit in Cannes in November announced on Tuesday German Chancellor Angela Merkel alongside visiting Uruguayan president Jose Mujica.
The head of Business-Europe International Relations said Wednesday that a free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur “would not destroy European agriculture” in spite of fears from farmers.
Major European corporations called on political leaders for an “ambitious and balanced” European Union-Mercosur trade agreement and asked that ‘agriculture issues’ impacts do not derail the project.
European Union farmers could suffer losses ranking from one to three billion Euros if a trade agreement is finally agreed with Mercosur according to a European Commission evaluation paper on the impact.
The Mercosur-EU trade agreement is one of several issues Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff will be addressing Monday in Brussels during the fifth Brazil-EU summit. Rousseff begins in Belgium an official visit to Europe that also includes Turkey and Bulgaria.
A trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union would significantly expand European investment given the increase in bilateral trade, but ‘there’s too much fear from both sides’, according to Adrian van den Hover head of international relations for Business Europe.
The Spanish government's enthusiasm for an European Union free-trade agreement with Mercosur remains solid and Madrid seems willing to put some sectors of agriculture at risk in exchange for access to new markets for the country's multinationals.