The foreign ministers of Mercosur and the European Union (EU) will once again discuss a possible trade agreement between the blocs in Buenos Aires, within the framework of the ministerial meeting that the World Trade Organization will hold in that city.
Uruguayan Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa highlighted the meeting to bring together the positions of Mercosur and the EU that will take place next Sunday, but indicated that if the European offer for the entry of meat is not well represented in the negotiations "it will be difficult for us to close [the agreement] as soon as possible," the Presidency published in a statement released on December 5.
El Agreement would be delayed pending an improvement in the European supply of meat and ethanol, which "was very poor," the minister said.
Several countries, both from the South American bloc and the EU, have publicly discussed this year the possibility of signing the agreement before the end of 2017.
The last meeting of the negotiating teams was in October in Brasilia, where the EU proposed a maximum import quota of 70.000 tonnes of meat per year without tariffs.
The Mercosur countries that are negotiating the agreement are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, while Venezuela, which is suspended from the bloc, had not previously joined these negotiations with the EU.
The four South American countries, which had requested a quota of 350.000 tonnes of meat per year, had hoped that European negotiators would offer at least 78.000 tonnes, but that did not happen.
If Canada (the Europeans) was offered a tariff-free quota of 50.000 tons of meat and Mercosur, which is one of the largest meat markets in the world, was offered 70.000 tons, "the imbalance is obvious and unsatisfactory for us," said Nin Novoa.
As for ethanol, the EU offered Mercosur the entry of 600.000 tons per year.
Technical teams from both blocs have been meeting in Brussels since Monday to advance discussions.
This instance is to "bring positions closer together in this final stage of the agreement""said the Secretary of International Economic Relations of the Argentine Foreign Ministry, Horacio Reyser, on his Twitter social network account.
Negotiations between the two blocs have been going on for 20 years and have been marked by the reluctance of some European countries to allow the entry of Latin American products.
Negotiations were interrupted in 2004 and only resumed six years later.
Ten rounds of talks were held since then until talks were frozen again in 10.
On May 11, 2016, the two blocs exchanged offers for the first time since 2010 and held a round of negotiations in October last year.
One round was held in Brussels between 3 and 7 July this year, and the last one was held in Brasilia in early October.
The 28 countries that make up the EU have a population of over 500 million people, while Brazil is the most populous country in Mercosur, with over 200 million inhabitants, followed by Argentina, with 44 million, Paraguay with seven million and Uruguay with 3,3 million.
We are in the XXXI Committee of Bilateral Negotiations with the European Union in#Brussels. We seek to bring positions closer in this final stage of the agreement. #Mercosur_EU pic.twitter.com/YGsVVKx4vi
— Horacio Reyser (@HoracioReyser) December 4th 2017
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