Brussels, 05/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Lisbon as part of the 1st EU/Brazil summit (see other article p.4), European and Brazilian leaders reaffirmed their commitment to trade liberalisation both at a global level - WTO negotiations of the Doha round - and at a bi-regional level - free trade negotiations (FTA) between the EU and Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela).
The president of the European Council, José Sócrates, the president of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and Brazilian president, Lula da Silva, massively increased the number of declarations in favour of relaunching Doha negotiations, which, since the failure of the G4 meeting at the end of June (EU, US, Brazil and India), have been reduced to a single multilateral process in Geneva. Addressing the press at the end of the summit, Lula stressed: “Even if we do not get the dream deal, we have to obtain an agreement where the poorest countries obtain a little benefit”. Eager to demonstrate his “flexibility”, the Brazilian president, nevertheless, did not hesitate, once again, to take on the role of spokesperson for the developing world. He hammered home the fact that “we cannot give a preference to the liberalisation of the sectors that the highly industrialised countries find the most attractive. We cannot allow this round to finish without there being an effective and substantial reduction in all forms of subsidies and barriers that distort world trade rules. It should be poor countries that get more and rich countries less”. Mr Sócrates admitted that an agreement “depended on reducing agricultural aid to developed countries” and conceded that there was an “excessive granting of subsidies to the agricultural sector in the US and some European countries”. In their joint declaration, Europeans and Brazilians “affirm their commitment to reach an ambitious, comprehensive and balanced agreement that fulfils the development objectives of the Round and significantly fosters trade flows in agriculture, industrial goods and services among and between developed and developing countries, as well as promoting effective trade rules”. Earlier in the day, the commissioner for trade, Peter Mandelson, and the head of Brazilian diplomacy, Celso Amorim, attended the summit in an attempt to bring their views closer together. Later, as a participant at the EU-Brazil business summit, Mandelson recognised the “legitimacy” of Brazilian demands regarding customs duties and agricultural subsidies in developed countries. Nonetheless, he did point out that as an advanced developing country, Brazil should also “contribute to a final agreement through the creation of market certainty and market opening for industrial and services exports - for developing and developed countries”.
The summit also provided the occasion for the different parties to evaluate the conditions that could revive the FTA EU-Mercosur negotiations, bogged down since the failure in Lisbon in 2004. In their final declaration, the EU and Brazil state that they are “strongly committed to concluding the EU-Mercosur Association Agreement, which will further deepen region-to-region trade and investment flows”. (eh)