The foreign ministers of the five Mercosur countries – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia – who met in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, on Wednesday 24 January, said they wanted to conclude the trade agreement as quickly as possible.
“It will be a priority to conclude the outstanding aspects of the negotiations with the European Union and sign a balanced agreement for both parties as soon as possible”, they told the press at the end of their meeting. Since the start of 2024, momentum has been building on both sides of the Atlantic in the hope of ratifying the agreement before the European elections in June, despite the setback suffered in December.
On the EU side, the European Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, stated on Tuesday 23 January that “a conclusion to the negotiations with Mercosur is within reach before the end of this mandate. We are working to seize this opportunity, which is of major geopolitical importance”.
This is despite the fact that there is still a great deal of opposition, particularly from France, which stated in December 2023 that it was opposed to the agreement in its current form (see EUROPE 13306/17). Similarly, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, very recently expressed some concerns about the conclusion of the agreement. In a statement to European and South American parliamentarians on Thursday 25 January, he spoke of the “additional roadblock” that “the current crisis in European agriculture” could represent. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)