negotiators of mercosur and the European Union (EU) agreed this Wednesday in Buenos Aires intensify this semester the conversations with a view to reaching a final free trade agreement between the bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay and the Twenty-seven.
As reported in a joint statement by the chief negotiators of the Mercosur-EU agreement, during meetings held this Tuesday and Wednesday in Buenos Aires a work schedule was established for the semester with a view to intensifying the negotiations.
After two decades of arduous talks, in 2019 the EU and the South American bloc reached a general political agreement to seal a free trade pact, leaving some technical aspects pending to be resolved.
But that discussion it got complicated by the appearance of renewed demands, mainly from the European side, regarding environmental issuesin particular, criticism of the policies of the Government of the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) and that have been maintained after the recent return of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to the power.
are also in force reluctance of certain countries with a powerful agricultural sector, such as Francewho do not want to open their markets to the competitive agricultural products of the South American bloc.
According to the statement, the talks in Buenos Aires “revolved around the three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) as a framework for deepening the bi-regional association.”
“Faced with the new global political and economic scenario, mindful of the strategic importance of the bi-regional relationship, Both delegations agreed on the importance of intensifying the dialogue to reach a mutually beneficial and balanced agreement,” the statement added.
The four national coordinators of the South American bloc and the chief negotiators of the Foreign Service and the General Directorate of Trade of the European Union participated in the talks in the capital of Argentina, the country that presides over Mercosur this semester.
(With information from EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com