The ministerial meeting on 30 January in Brussels is expected to provide an additional boost to the negotiations at a technical level with regard to the commercial section on the association agreement between the EU and Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), where, according to Sandra Gallina, addressing the European Parliament on Tuesday 23 January, “very few questions still need to be resolved". They are, nonetheless, no less significant and particularly involve market access, following “the progress made on many different elements" at the 11th of ministerial WTO conference mid-December in Buenos Aires.
Mercosur has presented its integrated offer and agreed to bring its revised tariff rate up to 90% of its tariff lines, as sought by the EU, which will offer 92% in tariff liberalisation.
Gallina referred to the "satisfactory progress" made in all the negotiation texts- particularly those on services and trade in merchandise.
She explained that, “The chief negotiators have examined all the texts and we have a very good understanding of all the different sensibilities".
She also explained that the "market access" pillar still requires the most work but there was still significant work to do on the regulatory pillar.
The European head of negotiations emphasised that the question of rules of origin was also pending and would need a boost from the ministers.
Gallina also illustrated the difficulties in the section on services and establishment in the maritime transport and telecommunications fields, which were “posing a problem" to Mercosur.
She did point out; on the other hand, however, that “excellent progress" had been made on the chapter on trade and sustainable development. She stressed that, "some questions still pending require a political decision but this is not a difficult chapter because our partners are enthusiastic supporters of sustainable development".
Ms Gallina pointed out, however, that the respective positions were very “far removed" from each other on cars, an annex on technical barriers to trade and intellectual property. With regard to geographical indications, a number of questions are still persisting, mainly on denominations and the coexistence of the names in certain Mercosur countries. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)