Brussels, 03/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - While Europeans and South Americans were meeting in Rio on 2 and 3 December at coordinator level to seek to reactivate the timetable for EU/Mercosur talks, the Brazilian government said on Thursday that it does not foresee concluding an EU-Mercosur free trade agreement before the end of the first term 2006. Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim stressed that, for his country, "discussions of the Doha Round at WTO must take primacy over bilateral trade talks", including with the EU.
"One and a half years is needed for concluding WTO talks, and there will be a similar period for the other negotiations", Mr Amorim told reporters after a meeting of the external affairs committee of the Brazilian Senate. "The WTO must be a priority because the questions of subsidies, anti-dumping and investment will only be settled in a multilateral context", he affirmed.