Brussels, 10/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - At the plenary session in Strasbourg on Monday evening, the European Commission took stock of EU-Mercosur negotiations on a trade agreement which has been deadlocked since the Lisbon ministerial meeting of 21 October last year (EUROPE 8812). At that stage in proceedings, “it was considered that the offers on both sides were insufficient to match the high level of ambition” both sides wanted for their agreement, pointed out Commissioner Viviane Reding, adding that the ministers then “decided to take time to think about how to restart the process”. At the World Economic Forum in Davos last January, the President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and Brazilian President Lula da Silva “agreed that in order to move negotiations forward on the economic aspects, these would have to be based on the best offers exchanged in Lisbon by both partners”, continued Ms Reding. However, at a meeting at technical level in Brussels on 21 and 22 March, by the end of which the Europeans and the South Americans had failed to set a date for the next ministerial meeting aimed at resuming negotiations in April (EUROPE 8914), “Mercosur refused to confirm the best offers exchanged”, as they felt that they were “overly favourable to the EU and that confirming them would intensify the alleged imbalance”, she added. “The Commission's objective is to convince Mercosur to move negotiations on quickly”, as various Mercosur partners may “be tempted to focus exclusively on negotiations at the WTO within the context of the Doha Round and afterwards finalise a bi-regional agreement”, added Ms Reding.
The Commission does not, however, share Mercosur's opinion that the offers on the table are disproportionately favourable to the EU: firstly because, in terms of market access, the European offer “is the most generous that has ever been offered in terms of product coverage and timetable for tariff dismantling and the greatest that has ever been made in bilateral agreements on agricultural products”; secondly because, moving on to the rules, Mercosur has refused to put forward on offer on public procurement, the inclusion of a chapter on intellectual property rights and the principle of appropriate protection for the EU's geographical indications; and lastly because the South American offer on services does not even consolidate the current level of liberalisation. The Commission therefore takes the view that “only” a ministerial meeting, preparations for which are underway, “would allow us to resume dialogue”. The Commission's efforts are focused “essentially on the state of progress in the technical preparations and Mercosur's level of commitment to substantial discussions”, its ambition at this stage being “to avoid jeopardizing the progress that we have already made”, Ms Reding stressed. Various South American negotiators, such as the Brazilian head of diplomacy, Celso Amorim, has on a number of occasions publicly stated that Mercosur was seeking to keep all its options open- bilateral negotiations within Latin America, the free trade agreement of the Americas, whilst putting negotiations at the WTO firmly at the top of its priority list- and so the Commission's aim is to “try to keep a communication channel open until the South Americans have a sufficiently clear vision of the potential results of negotiations in Geneva”, the Commissioner added, explaining that the Commission hoped that a ministerial meeting would take place by the end of July.
Stating that it would be “more reasonable” to put aside a longer period of time than the Commission's timetable had catered for (as the Commission is still aiming to conclude an agreement with the South Americans by the end of the year) “to leave more leeway in negotiations”, the German Social Democrat Erika Mann also suggested attempting to link negotiations with Mercosur with those of the Doha Round. Ms Mann voiced her regrets that negotiations are taking place “too much at governmental level”, thus downgrading cooperation between the EP and the parliaments of the Mercosur countries. Pointing out that the South Americans still wanted more access to the Community market for their agricultural products and yet were still reluctant to offer the Europeans more in terms of market access for industrial goods, British Conservative Charles Tannock spoke out against “the lack of real political goodwill on the part of the South Americans”, as he felt that the Mercosur members seemed to attach greater importance to bilateral agreements in Latin America and to the free trade area of the Americas. “I hope that the Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, will shortly come and explain to the EP how he intends to bring the South Americans back to the negotiating table”, he added.