European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen and her counterparts from four Mercosur countries have finalised negotiations for a trade deal between the EU and Mercosur today (Friday, December 6).
Von der Leyen finalised negotiations with Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Argentinian president Javier Milei, Paraguayan president Santiago Peña, and Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou today.
The controversial EU-Mercosur trade agreement would allow an additional 99,000t of beef enter the EU tariff-free from Mercosur countries Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia.
The political agreement will open up the EU market to goods from Mercosur, but limits imports from Mercosur of “sensitive agricultural products” such as beef, ethanol, pork, honey, sugar and poultry.
The proposed EU-Mercosur agreement is composed of a political and co-operation pillar, and a trade pillar. The end of negotiations constitutes the first step in the process towards conclusion of the agreement.
The official documents will be published online over the next days. Following final legal scrubbing by both sides, the text will be translated into all official EU languages.
Once these steps will be concluded, the commission will transmit a proposal to the Council and the European Parliament for signature and conclusion of the agreement.
The legal basis of any final EU-Mercosur agreement will be determined after an assessment of the outcome of the negotiations. This will be reflected in the commission’s proposal when it submits the agreement for ratification to the council and the parliament.
Mercosur
Von der Leyen and EU Trade Commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič arrived in Uruguay yesterday (Thursday, December 5), saying that the finish line of the Mercosur trade deal is now “in sight”.
Announcing the Mercosur agreement today, von der Leyen, said: “This is a win-win agreement, which will bring meaningful benefits to consumers and businesses on both sides.”
“We are focused on fairness and mutual benefit. We have listened to the concerns of our farmers and we acted on them. This agreement includes robust safeguards to protect your livelihoods.
“EU-Mercosur is the biggest agreement ever when it comes to the protection of EU food and drinks products. More than 350 EU products now are protected by a geographical indication.
“In addition, our European health and food standards remain untouchable. Mercosur exporters will have to comply strictly with these standards to access the EU market. This is the reality of an agreement that will save EU companies €4 billion worth of export duties per year.”
Work is currently underway on a new a Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) evaluating the economic, social, environmental and human rights impact of an agreement between the EU and Mercosur.
Earlier this year, the commission published a study that investigated the potential effects of 10 upcoming free-trade agreements (FTAs) under the current EU trade agenda.
The study confirmed that the analysed FTAs have the potential to “benefit” the EU agri-food sector, especially the dairy, pigmeat, processed food and beverages sectors. It also highlights the vulnerability of the beef, sheep meat, poultry meat, sugar and rice sectors.