If the future Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, withdraws his country from the Climate Agreement, Paris will not sign a free trade agreement with Mercosur, French President Emmanuel Macron warned.
After a meeting with Argentinian President Mauricio Macri on Thursday 29 November, on the eve of a G20 summit in Buenos Aires (see other news), the French President said he would not be able to sign a trade agreement with Mercosur if the future Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement. Mr. Bolsonaro, who will take office on January 1, threatened to remove Brazil from the Agreement.
"We cannot ask French farmers and workers to change their production habits to lead the ecological transition, and then sign trade agreements with countries that do not do the same. We want balanced agreements", the French president said on Twitter.
The French leader reportedly added that he was prepared to continue trade negotiations separately with Argentina.
Officially, talks between the EU and the South American bloc are continuing, although no new meetings are on the negotiators' agenda (see EUROPE 12142, 12139). In Brussels, several European sources have expressed their scepticism about the possibility of a successful outcome to these negotiations, which were opened more than 20 years ago.
Mercosur is composed of four countries: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)