Tag: EU-Mercosur

• Thursday, December 14th 2017 - 05:53 UTC

  Mercosur/EU accord will have to wait until 2018; Europe needs more time to assess latest proposal

  

  Negotiations for a trade deal between the European Union and Mercosur will extend into next year, officials from both sides said on Wednesday, after the Europeans asked for more time to analyze proposed changes.

• Wednesday, December 13th 2017 - 08:03 UTC

  Mercosur/EU ever so close but the accord has yet to be grasped, maybe 2018

  

  The talks between the European Union and Mercosur will likely extend into next year after European negotiators said they needed more time to respond to improved offers, a source from Mercosur negotiators said on Tuesday.

• Tuesday, December 12th 2017 - 10:34 UTC

  Mercosur/EU hurdles remain, and a deal announcement might not be reached this week

  

  Free-trade talks between the European Union and Mercosur still face hurdles over beef and ethanol, and an expected deal announcement this week might not happen, officials involved in negotiations admitted on Monday. Mercosur diplomats on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires said EU officials had not presented improved offers on EU tariff-free imports for beef and ethanol as promised.

• Tuesday, December 12th 2017 - 09:02 UTC

  Irish and French argue “a win for Mercosur in agriculture is a loss for EU farmers”

  

  Irish MEP and vice-president of the European Parliament Mairead McGuinness is representing the European Parliament at the ministerial assembly on the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Argentina, which began on Sunday, and has warned that rushing towards a Mercosur/European Union deal would jeopardize the EU beef industry.

• Monday, December 11th 2017 - 04:57 UTC

  Mercosur/EU closer to an agreement but differences on new farm proposal remain undecided

  

  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.

• Thursday, December 7th 2017 - 09:01 UTC

  Mercosur and EU confident a framework agreement will be announced this month

  

  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.

• Monday, November 27th 2017 - 06:54 UTC

  New round of EU/Mercosur talks in Brussels: agriculture main concern for France, Ireland, and Poland

  

  Brussels will seek to drive forward negotiations on a far-reaching trade deal with Mercosur this week despite warnings from France and other EU members that they are reaching the limit of the concessions they can tolerate on beef and other sensitive agricultural products, according to a report from the Financial Times.

• Monday, November 13th 2017 - 08:43 UTC

  EU and Mercosur “very close” to reaching an accord, says top European official

  

  The European Union and Mercosur are close to concluding a free trade accord after decades of fitful talks, an EU official said. “We’re that close to having a new association and trade agreement between EU and Mercosur,” European Commissioner for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness Jyrki Katainen said, holding his index finger and thumb just slightly apart.

• Wednesday, November 8th 2017 - 12:26 UTC

  Irish “grave concerns” about the beef industry with the EU/Mercosur trade deal

  

  Ireland's Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has expressed “grave concerns” about the offer of a beef tariff rate quota in last month’s round of European Union/Mercosur discussions, which he said gives rise to potentially very serious consequences for the Irish and EU beef sector in particular.

• Wednesday, November 8th 2017 - 10:26 UTC

  Macri optimistic about reaching a Mercosur/EU trade deal by end of the year

  

  Argentine president Mauricio Macri who has made signing trade deals a priority, said he was optimistic that Mercosur, the trade bloc formed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, would be able to conclude a free trade deal with the European Union by year-end despite differences over beef, ethanol and other agribusiness matters.