Brussels, 23/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of French President François Hollande's visit to Montevideo on Thursday 25 February, Uruguay's President Tabaré Vazquez spoke on Monday 22 February of the magnitude of Mercosur's offer in its free trade negotiations with the EU. He gave assurances that this would cover 93% of Mercosur's production, and pointed to the EU's reservations with regard to agriculture.
“The Mercosur countries presented their list of products and articles, (and) we make available over 93% of what we produce in order to reach a free trade deal”, Vazquez stated, whose country is currently holding the rotating presidency of the Mercosur bloc (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - Venezuela not being involved in the free trade talks).
According to several media sources, Vazquez added that he was waiting for the EU to decide. “Now it's the EU that has problems [Ed: with the treaty], primarily due to certain aspects related to agricultural protectionism. France may be there [among the reluctant countries] but also other countries because they are producers of agrifoodstuffs and they see [the future agreement] as competition”, Vazquez added.
Invited to comment on Vazquez's words and figures, the European Commission simply gave assurances that “the EU remains committed to an ambitious and comprehensive agreement, and to moving the negotiations forwards through an exchange of offers”. The Commission also said it was “working internally on this”.
The EU and Mercosur reaffirmed their commitment to concluding their free trade talks during a meeting between European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström and the trade ministers from the Mercosur countries on the sidelines of the EU-Latin America summit on 11 June 2015. These talks began in 1999 and were relaunched in 2010 after a six-year freeze. Malmström and the Mercosur trade ministers also agreed to move forward to an exchange of offers on market access (agricultural and industrial products, and also services and public procurement) before the end of 2015.
The process for such an exchange of offers has been going on since a technical-level meeting in Asuncion in October 2015, and then a political-level meeting between Malmström and Paraguay's Foreign Affairs Minister Eladio Loizaga on 19 November (see EUROPE 11434).
The European ministers from the EU member states then took stock with Malmström on 27 November, and gave the European Commission guidelines for the path to follow towards an exchange of offers on market access (see EUROPE 11440). Their discussions showed that the election of Argentina's new president, Mauricio Macri, had clearly revived the hope of concluding an agreement, despite the reservations shown by some member states - particularly on the agricultural chapter.
Malmström had told ministers there were two options on the table: either to exchange offers with Mercosur now, on the basis of the offer proposed by the South American party which covers 87% of its tariff lines (compared with 91.5% of tariff lines for the EU); or to put Mercosur under pressure so that it might improve its offer and bring this to 89% of its tariff lines - at the risk of Mercosur disengaging and this leading to a new stalemate. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)