The Vice-President of the European Commission (EC) for Employment Promotion, Jyrki Katainen, said on Tuesday (03.10.2017) that the European Union (EU) will finalize negotiations on the trade agreement with Mercosur "as soon as possible."
"We will find solutions with the Member States on the outstanding issues, make our offer and try to conclude the negotiations as soon as possible.", he assured Jyrki Katainen, at a press conference after addressing the issue at the weekly meeting of the College of Commissioners.
Asked about the lack of agreement between some member states on the proposal for beef submitted to the Latin American bloc, Katainen explained that the European commissioners addressed the situation "in general" because "sometimes it is easy to get lost in the details."
However, he acknowledged the importance of livestock in the talks and admitted that the "concerns" of some countries are being taken into account.
He referred to what the community club can achieve if it achieves a political agreement "before the end of the year" and highlighted sectors that would benefit, such as car producers, processed food and chemicals.
"While the trade agreement is very positive for creating jobs, for competitiveness and for economic growth, it also has a political dimension," he added, without explicitly mentioning US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly expressed his opposition to free trade agreements.
In fact, faced with difficulties in making progress in negotiations on the trade pact with Washington, known by the acronym TTIP, Brussels has concentrated in recent months on pushing through the treaty with Japan, provisionally implementing the one reached with Canada and accelerating talks with Mercosur, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
"The world has changed, trade has become a more political issue and we want to strengthen a rules-based world order", declared the former Prime Minister of Finland.
In this regard, he stressed that the European Union itself is a free trade organisation.
Negotiators from the European Union and Mercosur began a new round of discussions on Monday (02.10.2017) in Brasilia on the trade agreement that both blocs have been pursuing for almost two decades and intend to finalize before the end of the year.
Source: Reuters
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