In the Government they assure that Alberto Fernández will not sign the treaty with the current conditions. They argue that the EU did not attend to any of the Argentine claims to balance environmental demands and that it could harm local industry and exports.
The European Union is pressing for the members of Mercosur to ratify the free trade agreement signed in 2019. They want it to be announced during the summit of leaders that will be held between this Wednesday and Thursday in Brazil. A few days after the transfer of command, the future Minister of Foreign Affairs, Diana Mondino asked Alberto Fernández to sign the agreement, but the Foreign Ministry assures that the conditions are not met to endorse the pact, due to the points that Argentina demands, the risks for the national industry and exports.
Both the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union, Josep Borrell, and the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had everything ready to disembark this week in Rio de Janeiro. In the European bloc they were convinced that within the framework of the Southern Common Market Summit, more than two decades of negotiations could be put to an end. But according to official sources, the two EU representatives put their trip on “stand by”.
Enthusiasm appeared among the Europeans after an advance of Lula who is in charge of the pro tempore presidency of Mercosur. Something changed in the position of the Brazilian president. At the beginning of the year he seemed to procrastinate on the issue, but In recent months it gave impetus to the negotiations with the aim of closing them before the end of 2023. Something that, according to the San Martín Palace, is not possible under current conditions.
“Argentina is not ready to sign,” a qualified diplomatic source bluntly told Ambit. In the Government they assure that None of the claims made by the country were attended to.. And they argue that these requests only seek to balance the impact that the environmental requirements that the European Union added after signing the agreement in 2019 will have on local exports.
In these months of back and forth, the original agreement was never opened. The rules of origin, which could allow the EU to enter products that were mostly manufactured in countries that do not belong to the bloc, without paying tariffs, were not revised. Nor were the adaptation periods extended for sectors considered “sensitive” nor were the entry quotas improved for Mercosur products.
The discussion, then, focused on the side letter of environmental demands of the European Union and a series of requests to mitigate its impact on local production. Argentina asked that the EU provide financing to small and medium-sized companies for the transition and requested to add a special chapter for the development of electromobility. At the same time, he demanded that certificates of compliance with green standards be granted by local universities.
In the wallet you drive Santiago Cafiero They assure that Brussels did not grant any of these points and consider that, as proposed, the agreement will be “very detrimental to the Argentine industry.” That vision was reinforced in these hours by the industrial unions that issued a statement in which they assure that “in the short and medium term it practically implies the destruction of the sector.”
The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sanchezwho heads the Council of the EU, He had been putting pressure on Mercosur and negotiating with Lula so that the agreement would be signed this week. If Argentina does not give in, Europe will have to wait, because in the South American bloc these types of treaties can only be ratified with unanimity of the members.
The assumption of Javier Milei opens new unknowns for the negotiation. The libertarian expressed on more than one occasion his desire to open the Argentine economy. But at the same time he became one of the greatest exponents of climate change denialism, an agenda that seems to be a priority for the EU and that already weighed on Jair Bolsonaro’s years as head of Brazil. How will Europe react now?
Source: Ambito
