Mercosur will sign FTA with Singapore while awaiting agreement with the EU

He Mercosur will sign the free trade agreement agreed with Singapore in 2022 during the summit that will be held next week in Brazil, in which he will formalize negotiations with the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, while continuing to discuss with the European Union (EU).

“We continue to negotiate, almost weekly,” declared in relation to the EU the director of Economic Affairs of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, Mauricio Lyrio, in a press conference on the Mercosur summit, which next week will bring together the leaders of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay in Rio de Janeiro .

Lyrio confirmed that the agreement with Singapore, agreed upon last year, will be signed on December 7, within the framework of the meeting of Mercosur presidents, and that that same day “expected to announce” the beginning of negotiations for free trade agreements with the Dominican Republic and El Salvador.

He admitted, however, that the “greater efforts” They are dedicated to trying to conclude the agreement with the EUfor which “negotiations continue on a weekly basis” and about which “It has come a long way” In recent months, during the Brazilian presidency of the Mercosur.

Even so, he clarified that the negotiation with the EU “has not finished” and what remains to be negotiated “some points”hence “It is necessary to do very intense work and effort until the 7th.”when Brazil will hand over the semiannual presidency of Mercosur to Paraguay.

That date has been set in some way as a limit for these negotiations by the Paraguayan president, Santiago Peña, who in Rio de Janeiro will receive the semiannual presidency of Mercosur from the Brazilian host. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

According to Peña, his Government will not insist too much on the continuity of negotiations that have been going on for more than two decades and will have as a priority the search for new agreements with other blocs or countries.

The negotiations between the EU and the Mercosur They began in 1999 and reached a consensus in 2019, but they stalled again due to new European demands on the environment and the disagreement of the South American bloc with the chapter on public purchases, among other points.

The semiannual Mercosur Summit will begin on December 6, when the ministers of Economy and Foreign Affairs of the bloc will meet, and will be closed the next day by the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.

The event will serve as a farewell for the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, who will transfer power on December 10 to the far-right Javier Mileiwinner of the last elections and who will not be present at the Mercosur summit.