The announcement of the closing of the Mercosur-European Union agreement will trigger the emergence of a “negotiating appetite” on the part of other nations in favor of investments in Brazil or in association with the South American bloc, he said this Tuesday (02) Brazilian Chancellor Ernesto Araújo, reports “Agência Brasil”.
“We are very close to an agreement with EFTA (Free Trade Association made up of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and with Canada, perhaps in the second half of 2019,” said Araújo. According to him, the closing of a Mercosur agreement with Singapore and South Korea is also close.
Alongside ambassador Pedro Miguel da Costa e Silva, who led the delegation of Brazilian negotiators that discussed the commercial part of the agreement, Ernesto Araújo stated that it is already possible to foresee the materialization of investments throughout Mercosur, even before the signing of the agreement with the EU.
Actions
Araújo and Costa e Silva presented a series of actions that need to be adopted before the agreement is signed. Initially, both the European Union and Mercosur are carrying out a legal review of all documents prepared by both sides. After this procedure, the EU will translate each document into all languages spoken in Europe.
After this stage, the terms of the agreement will be examined by the parliaments of the EU and Mercosur countries. The European Parliament, which is made up of parliamentarians elected by EU citizens, will only examine the economic and commercial part of the agreement. Once approved by European parliamentarians (and also by the congresses of each of the Mercosur countries), all economic and trade topics negotiated between the EU and Mercosur will come into force immediately.
The political part negotiated between the two blocs will not be presented to the European Parliament but to the parliaments of each of the 28 nations that make up the European Union. Therefore, political topics will only come into force after the parliaments of each European country approve the content of the documents. The congresses of Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina will be responsible not only for approving political topics, but also for the economic and commercial treaties proposed by the negotiators.
Integration
The Brazilian chancellor stated that Mercosur's negotiation with the European Union followed the desire of the governments of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay to seek integration with the world, thus avoiding isolation. He cited the good relationship between the governments of Brazil and Argentina as a factor that should encourage Mercosur reform.
According to Araújo, both the Brazilian Ministry of Economy and Itamaraty are working in favor of Mercosur reform. “One of the goals is the reform of the Common External Tariff [TEC]”, which is a mechanism constantly used by the bloc’s member countries to protect their markets. “This reform grows with the approval of the agreement”, said the Brazilian chancellor.
“A Mercosur closed to us and the world is not interesting. What matters is to remove barriers between the four partners so that the block can become an efficient platform for negotiating with third parties”, said the chancellor.
