The president of France, Emmanuel Macrondescribed this Wednesday as “very bad” the free trade agreement (FTA) negotiated between Mercosur and the European Union (EU) and proposed making “a new one”, during the second day of his state visit to Brazil.
The deal “as currently negotiated is a very bad deal for you and for us,” Macron said at an economic forum in Sao Paulo. “In that agreement there is nothing that takes into account the issue of biodiversity and the climate. Nothing! That’s why I say it’s not good at all,” she emphasized before an audience of Brazilian businessmen.
The French president called for building another agreement between the European Union and the bloc that Uruguay integrates with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia, which must involve environmental issues. “We negotiated with Mercosur for 20 years. Let’s make a new agreement, one that is responsible from a development, climate and biodiversity point of view,” he insisted.
“An agreement with mirror clauses that facilitate access to the European market for their companies and that is more demanding from both sides with our farmers, our industrialists,” he insisted. Macron has repeatedly spoken out against this trade agreement, whose rules he does not consider “homogeneous” with the European ones.
The FTA project, whose negotiations began in 1999, plans to eliminate most of the duty between the two areas creating a commercial space for more than 700 million consumers.
After a political agreement in 2019, the opposition of several countries, including France, blocked its final adoption, a rejection that has been reinforced by the agricultural crisis that shakes Europe. Other countries like Germany and Spain They advocate for its adoption.
On a visit to Brazil at the beginning of March, the head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchezhe was optimistic along with the president Lula da Silva in closing the pact.
“We still have time,” said the Brazilian Finance MinisterFernando Haddad, in the same forum in which Macron participated. “It is true that we missed an opportunity at the end of last year, but we must not give up on this agreement.”
Haddad added that the Brazilian president had invested a lot of time in the agreement and that he would continue to support a closer relationship with the European market.
Source: Ambito
