According to Brussels, the Mercosur agreement should not be completed in the summer.
(Photo: Reuters)
Brussels, Berlin The Mercosur agreement could create the world’s largest free trade zone with 780 million inhabitants. But hopes of a joint trade agreement between the EU and the four South American Mercosur countries are fading.
The plan to announce a basic agreement at the EU-Latin America summit on July 18 has in fact already failed, as insiders report to the Handelsblatt. An early agreement is “very unlikely”, said an EU diplomat, not even at the end of the year he sees a chance.
France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and Ireland reject the text of the treaty in its current form. They fear cheap beef imports from South America and further destruction of the rainforest. The partners Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, on the other hand, are resentful of the additional demands made by the Europeans, who are demanding better protection of the forest.
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