Brussels, 27/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Union and the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) are to present, on Friday, new offers of customs dismantling in the context of negotiations for a free trade and association agreement between the two regional blocs. These offers will be examined during the next negotiating session, from 17 to 21 March.
Mercosur this week put the last touches to its offer during a meeting in Asunción, in Paraguay, which is to take on the presidency of the common market for the South American region. "It is certain there will be a proposal, as Mercosur ministers pledged during their meeting with Commissioners Lamy and Patten last July", Brazil's Ambassador to the EU, José Alfredo Graça Lima, assures. The EU trusts the offer will be more substantial than that covering 40% of trade, proposed in 2001 by Mercosur (for $7.5 billion worth of imports). The difficult thing is to reach consensus between the four countries of Mercosur on sensitive matters such as textiles for Argentina or automobiles and electronic equipment for Brazil, admits José Alfredo Graça Lima. The decision is all the more complicated as the new Brazilian government has not yet completed its reflection on free trade negotiations in progress, in the context of more overall reflection on liberalisation, the trade balance, and the role of exchange rates, notes the ambassador.
The offer presented by the EU in July 2001 already covers 91% of current trade, notably consolidating tariffs that are already the subject of concessions in the context of the generalised system of preferences, for example. Mercosur countries hope, however, that there will be greater opening for the 10% of excluded products that interest them, such as sugar, beef and chicken, for example, "even if this is within the framework of quotas", Alfredo Graça Lima notes.