Brussels, 18/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - The 8th EU-Mercosur meeting to negotiate an Association and Free Trade Agreement, that was held in Brasilia last week, provided the expected results, declared the spokesperson for External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten on Friday. The largely technical meeting focussed on standards, technical regulations and authorisation procedures, along with competition, rules of origin, intellectual property, customs procedures and the dispute regulation procedure. The Commission provided assurances that they had made good progress on all points, in line with the timetable decided in Rio in July. Given the economic crisis in Argentina and Uruguay and the recent elections in Brazil, the negotiations could have been held up, explained the European side.
Negotiators are expected to get down to brass tacks at their meeting in Brussels at the end of March 2003, when the two sides will be comparing their liberalisation proposals (expected to be unveiled on 28 February). They will be looking at the most controversial issues - the tariff dismantling level, the speed of liberalisation, the question of whether to introduce quotas for sensitive products, etc.