Different products from Uruguay and the region would see tariffs reduced or eliminated, along with an increase in export quotas to Europe.
He Mercosur – European Union (EU) agreement remains a great point of uncertainty in the foreign policy not only of the region, but also of Uruguay, who was betting on closing the free trade agreement with the European bloc and thus scoring a success for the International Trade for the current government management.
At a time when attention is on the French political crisis that threatens to further delay the reopening of negotiations, the rest of the countries are wondering if the Mercosur-EU agreement will be able to officially see the light of day, while the producing and exporting sectors that would have benefited from the new trade conditions have long since turned their hopes to other international conversations.
The government of France, which was already the main opponent of the closing of the agreement, was impacted by the results of the elections of the European Parliament, where Emmanuel Macron was the big loser before the historic advance of the extreme right led by Marine Le Pen. The dissolution of the National Assembly and the call for elections between Sunday, July 30 and July 7 is now the political priority in the country, which, in addition, could see its vision on aspects of the administration completely change.
This is added, now, to the previous decision not to resume the discussion between the regional blocs until September, when the European Commission had its new authorities. Here, again, the formation of the new European Parliament will be key. The uncertainty lies in the strong possibility that the extra-European international politics It will not be a priority in the coming months.
The benefits for trade that the agreement could bring
The truth is that the local production of all the countries involved in the negotiation that has been going on for 25 years could benefit from the new agreements regarding export quotas and preferential tariffs. Something that would only happen if the talks were unstuck and managed to reach a successful conclusion, if not in the short term, at least in the medium term.
If the agreement is ratified, a bilateral market of 780 million people that would immediately or progressively eliminate tariffs on more than 90% of the goods they mutually import.
According to him United States Center for Strategic and International Studiesthe current bilateral trade of the EU with Mercosur It amounts to 88,000 million euros per year in goods and 34,000 million euros in services. With the consolidation of the new free trade zonethe amounts would represent around 20% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) world.
In the case of Mercosur, The main favored products would be honey, rice, sugar and poultry, which could enter the European bloc without paying tariffs – and this is one of the main reasons for complaints by European farmers; and meat, whose entry fee would drop to 7.5%. In parallel, the import quotas annually: 45,000 tons for honey, 60,000 tons of rice, 180,000 tons for both sugar and poultry, and 99,000 tons for beef.
Source: Ambito
