The Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santo Silva, presented the priorities of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council in respect of trade to the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) on Thursday 28 January.
He said that it particularly wanted to contribute to the finalisation of the agreement with Mexico and the acceleration of negotiations over an agreement with Chile. With regard to the agreement with Mercosur countries, he fully assumed a willingness to support the process and to rapidly make rapid progress.
Mercosur. The Minister reiterated his support for the European Commission, which had proposed not to go back on the content of the agreement, but to include a joint declaration specifying the commitments in December (see EUROPE 12621/22). He went a step further by also responding to the concerns of some MPs regarding the human rights situation and deforestation in Brazil: “Free trade agreements (FTAs) cannot be achieved by ignoring fundamental principles, but this does not mean that they should be transformed into policy agreements where standards are so important that they push trade provisions into the background. Not all problems can be solved with FTAs”.
India. The Minister noted the commitment of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council to achieve closer ties with India. “We believe that it is possible to develop negotiations with an investment agreement in mind”. The planned EU-India summit will, he said, provide political impetus to the development of relations between the two sides over the coming six months.
MEP Margarida Marques (S&D, Portugal) asked him about human rights: “Do you intend to include the issue of human rights on the agenda of the EU-India summit?” Other colleagues in the European Parliament expressed concern about India’s cooperation over sustainable development. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)