The chancellor of Germany and the president of Brazil expressed hopes on Monday that there will finally be a FTA between European Union and the Mercosurafter decades of negotiations.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said they support the treaty between the 27 countries that make up the EU and Mercosur, made up of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. The two blocs will hold a summit this Thursday in Rio de Janeiro, but so far no final approval of the preliminary agreement has been achieved.
“We are firmly committed to ensuring that the agreement is now finalized quickly,” Scholz declared after a meeting of officials from both countries in the German capital.
Lula also spoke in favor of the agreement and said he hopes there will be progress at the Rio summit. “As long as I believe that the agreement is possible, I will fight for it,” said the Brazilian president. “I’ll not give up”.
The agreement would create one of the largest free trade zones in the world, with more than 700 million inhabitants. The EU and Mercosur have been in negotiations for more than 20 years. They reached a basic agreement on
2019, but they were unable to implement it due to various reasons, including measures to protect the Amazon rainforest and the desire of some European countries to protect their farmers from South American imports.
“We believe it would be a great step forward, even if bilateral relations are very good,” Scholz said.
The two leaders also signed a bilateral agreement to create “an ecological and socially just transformation” and said they plan to step up cooperation in the fight against disinformation and hate speech.
Source: Gestion
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