EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis reiterated, on Friday 30 April, his support for an early ratification of the EU-Mercosur agreement at a conference on the agreement organised by the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, the business federation BusinessEurope, the Confederation of Portuguese Enterprises and the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry.
“It’s on the one hand important that we put those additional commitments regarding climate change, deforestation, on the table to reassure concerns to these countries, (but) on the other hand, it is important that organisations like BusinessEurope are working with those countries to highlight economic benefits”, he said. According to him, the opponents of the agreement are more vocal than the supporters, giving the trade agreement a bad name.
He recalled that the concerns raised by some Member States, in particular on agricultural products, had already been taken into account. “I want to emphasise that we have been careful in the concessions. We have tariff rate quotas for beef, a phase in period, a safeguard clause. We don't expect that the EU Mercosur agreement produces a surge of agri imports from Mercosur”, he said.
Regarding the timetable, he claimed that the agreement could be submitted for ratification in 2022. He said that the legal revision of the text and the addition of the additional declarations could be finalised by the end of this year.
Present at the end of the conference, Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Alberto Franco França defended the agreement tooth and nail. He highlighted the energetic performance of the Mercosur countries, the sustainable development chapters of the agreement or the commitment of the parties to the objectives of the Paris Agreement: “There is no basis to say that the agreement represents a threat to the environment or to human rights”, he concluded.
Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva sent a message similar to that of Commissioner Dombrovskis, calling for progress towards ratification of the agreement. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)