During a visit to Argentina and Brazil at the end of last week, the French Minister for the Economy, Michel Sapin, provided assurances that France was not an obstacle to EU/Mercosur free trade talks and wanted them to move forward, despite the difficulties experienced.
Speaking during a press briefing on Saturday Buenos Aires, Mr Sapin stated, “The message I want to send out is that France is not an obstacle. I know that hitherto it has often been said that France is one of the countries that has been obstructing the way these negotiations are conducted, given the importance of its agricultural sector but Brazil and Argentina are also countries that have had the habit of being very closed in on themselves, even in the industrial field”.
Mr Sapin explained that the second round of EU/Mercosur talks en 20-25 March in Buenos Aires “went well” even though he acknowledged that these discussions had been “difficult”.
In a reference to protectionist indications being displayed by the US president, Donald Trump, he asserted that, “France really wants to make progress and also with regard to a more global problem”. He stressed that, “At a time when the biggest economy in the world is expressing ideas and attitudes that suggest a withdrawing in on itself and isolationism, it is the rest of the world’s interest to demonstrate that dialogue and openness are productive: this is perhaps the best response to the US administration”.
At the end of March, the second round of negotiations for an association agreement between the EU and Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) helped the different parties to arrive at a common negotiating text in each of the chapters in the trade chapter in the agreement, as well as an agreement on the chapter on competition policy (see EUROPE 11755).
The different parties are planning to meet up again in Brussels this July. An inter-sessional meeting on the trade pillar will take place at the end of May in Buenos Aires.
On 23 March, Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, reported back on “The significant progress” made in these negotiations and explained that the objective was to have a political agreement “by the end of 2017”.
These discussions, however, where somewhat hampered by the misgivings expressed by the European agri-food lobbies, which are hoping to limit the entry onto the EU market of South American meat products, following the health scandal involving rotten meat in Brazil (the other article). (Emmanuel Hagry)