The free trade agreement signed between Mercosur and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), a bloc made up of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, provides preferential access for the main agricultural products exported by Brazil, with the elimination of tariffs or concessions of quotas.
Some of the sectors that will benefit from the agreement are: beef, chicken meat, corn, soybean meal, sugarcane molasses, honey, roasted coffee, fruits and fruit juices.
Negotiations between the two blocs began in January 2017 and were concluded after ten rounds.
With a GDP of US$ 1.1 trillion and a population of 14.3 million people, EFTA is the ninth largest player in world trade in goods and the fifth largest in trade in services.
The Ministry of Economy estimates that the Mercosur-EFTA agreement will increase Brazilian GDP by US$ 5.2 billion over a period of 15 years. Another projection is growth of US$ 5.9 billion and US$ 6.7 billion in total Brazilian exports and imports, respectively, totaling an increase of US$ 12.6 billion in Brazilian trade. A substantial increase in investments in Brazil is expected, in the order of US$5.2 billion, in the same period.
In 2018, trade between Brazil and EFTA totaled US$ 4.5 billion, with exports of US$ 1.7 billion, mainly composed of gold, chemical products such as aluminum oxide, coffee, soy, meat and various food preparations, and imports of US$ 2.8 billion, with emphasis on pharmaceuticals and organic chemicals, machinery and equipment, oil and gas, fish and shellfish.
Source: Agricultural News
