The ministerial meeting between the EU and Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), which was held in Brussels on Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 July, did not enable a breakthrough for an agreement on the trade section of an association agreement between the two blocs. Negotiations for this have been ongoing since 1999 (with a break between 2005 and 2010) but Wednesday's meeting took stock of progress achieved since early 2018.
The meeting was attended by European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and the foreign affairs ministers of the Mercosur countries and took place on the sidelines of an EU-Latin America and Caribbean (CELAC) ministerial meeting. A Commission spokesperson stated that the meeting had "confirmed the strong political commitment to reach an agreement", but he gave no further detail.
"There is still important work to be done" in the areas of cars and spare parts, geographical indications, maritime services and dairy products, the spokesperson added.
The last round of technical level talks took place in Brussels on 9-13 July, but only enabled "limited progress" on these issues of offensive interest for the EU.
"Discussions at the technical level are continuing this week. It is too early to say when a political agreement could be concluded", EUROPE's source added.
The South Americans nevertheless hope to seal an agreement in September, before the general elections in Brazil in October, which have for long been the goal for an agreement in principle.
"We have achieved a sort of critical mass that will enable us to go to the closing game (...) The target is a good agreement that we consider that we will be arriving at more or less at the end of August, first part of September", Argentina's Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Faurie stated at a press conference at the end of the ministers' work on Thursday.
Faurie gave assurances that "significant progress" had been made "in very sensitive and sensitive areas for both parties", including "fundamental advances" in areas of offensive interest for the EU, such as cars and geographical indications.
"We hope to resume the technical work and the final aspects soon, so as to be able to host the Europeans in Montevideo at the latest and to go ahead", Faurie added.
"As well as having common visions of democracy and human rights, we want fair and just trade and multilateral rules. That's why it is logical for Mercosur to be linked to the EU", he said.
Uruguayan news agency MercoPress reports that a Brazilian government negotiator also sees September as an effective deadline, before the country's general elections, but MercoPress reports that he seems less optimistic, saying that while Mercosur is ready, the EU does not seem ready to move.
"The (EU-Mercosur) ministers should meet again in September, in Montevideo. There is still time, but it would be the last chance this year and it will depend mostly on the Europeans’ willingness to commit", the Brazilian negotiator added. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)