The representative of European employers, BusinessEurope, wants the free trade agreements (FTAs) between the EU and Mexico, Chile and New Zealand respectively to “see the light of day” in 2023. In two identical letters, dated 11 January and sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel, he deplores the difficult conditions facing European businesses, which open trade could alleviate.
“We believe that increasing diversification through new free trade agreements would be one of the key actions to improve the situation and address many of the current challenges”, writes the business representative.
The context of underlying tensions between the EU and the US reinforces the need for diversification by the EU’s partners, according to BusinessEurope, particularly because of the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which hurts European producers (see EUROPE 13091/11).
Negotiations for the trade agreement with Mexico are expected to follow in the footsteps of those with Chile (see EUROPE 13081/19) and New Zealand (see EUROPE 12983/5) and to be concluded soon.
In addition to agreements with these countries, BusinessEurope hopes to see progress in the negotiations for an EU-Mercosur agreement, which it sees as “the most important” of the FTAs under discussion.
See the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/4ui (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)