Brussels, 25/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - Argentina seems to be a stumbling block at the moment, preventing the signing of free-trade deals between the EU and South America.
Initially scheduled for the autumn of 2013, but then postponed until the start of this year, the exchange of negotiating offers on a free market in farm and industrial products between the EU and Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela) will not now take place in March as hoped, but the parties have agreed to hold an expert meeting on 21 March to examine the possibility that offers could be exchanged over the following months. The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, told reporters after the EU-Brazil summit in Brussels on 24 February that the 21 March meeting would serve to check the level of ambition of each side (see EUROPE 11025). On Monday, the president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, said Brazil was, for the first time, ready to sign a deal with the EU.
The 21 March meeting will be crucial for the future of the trade talks launched in 2000 but put on hold from 2004 to 2010. There are doubts about Argentina's enthusiasm for a deal because its tariff offer is currently more conservative than that of its Mercosur partners. Leaked reports suggest that Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are prepared to remove customs duties from 90% of products, but Argentina only 80%. The Mercosur countries are expected to finalise their offer by 7 March. On Monday, the head of the Brazilian National Confederation of Agriculture, Katia Abreu, said: “Argentina today is a stumbling block”. Abreu is a senator and member of one of the political parties in the coalition government. She hinted that Brazil had not ruled out signing a deal with or without Argentina. She said: “We do not want to neglect Argentina. We hope to convince them, but maybe they will join at a later stage”, adding that there was a fifty-fifty chance that Argentina would push forward for a deal now. (EH/transl.fl)