Surfing on the wave created by the ministerial meeting of 30 January, negotiators from the EU and Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) are attempting this week in Brussels to reduce their differences and pave the way towards a political agreement by the end of February for a free trade agreement.
No significant information has leaked out from the high-level meeting of chief negotiators from the European Commission and Mercosur bloc on Friday 2 February in Brussels, which gave the go-ahead to another round of technical level negotiations this week in the Belgian capital.
The objective stated by the negotiators this week at a political level is still that of obtaining a compromise before the beginning of the general election campaign in Brazil this March.
The Uruguayan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Rodolfo Nin Novoa, stated on Saturday 3 February that he was expecting this political agreement at the ministerial meeting on “26 February in Asunción”.
In an interview to Uruguayan radio, Nin Novoa said, “The first two pillars” of the future EU/Mercosur Association agreement, the political and cooperation pillars, “are almost closed and we just need to make the necessary adjustments to close the third pillar on the economy”.
Nin Novoa explained that Uruguay had a “particular interest" in agricultural matters, a sector in which the EU should make concessions. He added that he particularly hoped that the Europeans would make “a better offer" on access to the rice market.
Nin Novoa also pointed out that the milk products sector, where the EU has some offensive interests, marked “a red line" for his country, due to the fall in international prices.
He highlighted the fact that, “European producers can tackle this by way of internal subsidies but in the Mercosur bloc we do not provide subsidies. This puts our national production in a dangerous situation and we therefore cannot agree on discussing these issues”.
On Tuesday, in an effort to seal an agreement, the EU proposed a recalibrated offer on agricultural market access based on conditions regarding Mercosur concessions on granting access to its industrial products market (particularly cars and spare car parts), services (particularly maritime services), public procurement and agricultural products for which the EU has a number of offensive interests, such as with milk products (see EUROPE 11950, 11951 and 11952).
According to the information we have received, the Commission has proposed improving its agricultural offer for all sensitive products except for ethanol (with an unchanged import quota of 600,000 tonnes).
The Commission therefore proposed to increase the EU import tariff quota for South American beef from 70,000 to 99,000 tonnes, with an unchanged fresh meat/frozen meat ratio of 50%-50% and an unchanged 7.5% duty applicable for each tranche.
The recalibrated EU offer also includes improved market access for poultry, maize and sugar (with a 120,000-tonne quota at a €98 tariff per tonne). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)