The EU strengthens its international relations with other countries in an attempt to improve its strategic autonomy and free itself from potentially harmful dependencies. The last agreement forged is the free trade between the EU and the countries that make up Mercosur. After more than two decades of tug-of-war, both regions finally sealed the agreement this Friday to liberalize trade relations.
“This agreement is not only an economic opportunity but a political necessity,” said the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who pointed out that, if the trend is towards fragmentation and isolation, this agreement is the opposite response. . “This agreement is our clear response. We are together on a global stage as partners.
The German company has detailed that this agreement “involves more jobs, better jobs, more options and better prices”, at the same time, it eliminates “barriers” and allows “investments” for 30,000 small and medium-sized companies. Just as part of an agreement in which both parties benefit, he has assured that it will strengthen both parties, “it will develop strategic industries and create jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.”
The alliance between the community bloc and the countries that make up Mercosur, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay has taken 20 years. In this last stage, the main tensions lay precisely in the environmental demands that were demanded of European producers and that would not be applied to producers in Latin American countries. The community primary sector went up in arms against the threat that tariff elimination would give a competitive advantage to the Mercosur countries.
Despite the principle of agreement reached in 2019, the tensions and rejection of European producers were transferred to the negotiation table in the form of an annex that posed the same demands for Mercosur producers as for community producers.
France’s rejection, however, persists. The French camp has been one of the most vocal in opposing the agreement and its president, Emmanuel Macron, defended that it would result in production standards in the EU falling to the levels of these countries.
For their part, Germany, and ten other member states, are among those that see more advantages than disadvantages about this agreement. It is about opening a market to a heavily damaged automobile industry, at a time when China is making progress in establishing itself solidly in the Latin American market. Added to all this is the return of Donald Trump to the White House, which extends the shadow of possible tariffs on the EU and therefore, of tense trade relations with the EU’s main trading partner.
Prior to her arrival at the Mercosur Summit in Montevideo, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, indicated that the pact will allow the creation of a market of 700,000 million people. “The largest trade and investment agreement ever seen,” he said on the social network X, formerly Twitter.
The agreement is expected to liberalize 99% of EU agricultural trade and open its market to 88% of EU agricultural goods. Spanish agri-food and fishing exports to Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) increased in value by 5.4% annually in 2023, to 420 million euros, while imports decreased by 29.4% (4,094 million) .
The trade deficit grew 32%, reaching 3,674 million, according to a recent analysis by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA). The most exported Spanish products in 2023 were olive oil, wine and must, and stone fruits; On the import side, soy beans and cakes, and corn stood out.
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