During a trip to Berlin on Thursday 10 November, Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva confirmed Portugal’s commitment to signing free-trade deals between the EU and the American continent, particularly an ambitious deal with Mercosur.
The day after Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States, Santos Silva defended his country’s willingness to boost trade with Canada and the United States.
At an economic forum, he said Portugal did not have any problem with the ratification process for CETA (the free-trade agreement between the EU and Canada) and neither did it have any problem with the negotiation process for TTIP (the free-trade agreement with the Untied States).
Santos encouraged the EU to go further and be more ambitious in its free-trade negotiations with Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, Venezuela is not taking part in the talks) and to boost trading relations with the South American continent and East Asia in particular, reports Spanish press agency EFE. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)