The signing of the trade agreement between the EU and the South American bloc Mercosur will be postponed until January, further delaying a deal that had been in the negotiation process for about 25 years, according to European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho’s confirmation on Thursday.
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Ursula von der Leyen, the commission’s president, was scheduled to sign the deal in Brazil on Saturday, but the majority of EU members were unwilling to do so.
Von der Leyen, Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, and Giorgia Meloni, prime minister of Italy, reached a delay deal, according to the Associated Press, with the condition that Italy would vote in favor of it in January. von der Leyen, Costa, made the announcement at a summit on Thursday.
As he arrived for the summit on Thursday in Brussels, French President Emmanuel Macron demanded more concessions and discussions in January. He had also pushed back against the agreement.
Macron claimed that he has been in discussions with Irish, Italian, Polish, Belgian, and other colleagues about putting off the signing.
The French leader said that “farmers already face a lot of challenges.”
The EU’s largest trade pact would include tariff reductions for Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
However, the deal’s critics, particularly those from France and Italy, fear a surge of cheap commodities that could hurt European farmers. Germany, Spain, and Nordic nations claim that it will boost exports hit by US tariffs and reduce China’s dependence by securing access to important minerals.
According to Brazil’s president Lula, Italy’s prime minister Meloni pleaded for “patience.”
In a time of high global trade tensions, the EU-Mercosur agreement would establish the largest free-trade area in the world and encourage the 27-nation European Union to export more goods, including cars, tools, wines, and spirits to Latin America.
Germany, Spain, and the Nordic nations were “all lobbying vigorously in favor of this deal,” according to Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, who was reporting from Berlin. The French and Italian governments, however, were divided over their strong farming sectors.
Their concern is that the Mercosur countries’ far-priced imports, such as poultry and beef, could be overtaken by them, Keane said.
No signing is expected in December, then. He continued, “I’m hoping there will be a signing in the middle of January.”
Given that the powerful forces in this debate were pitted against one another, “but there must be a question now about what might happen between now and mid-January,” he continued.
According to a spokeswoman for the European Commission, Mercosur nations were made aware of the decision, and Brazil delayed signing the deal to give its EU partners a now-or-never ultimatum on Thursday to allow time to win over the disgruntled.
Italy’s Meloni had asked for “patience,” according to Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and that the country would eventually be ready for the deal.
Farmers in Brussels slowed roads and started fireworks in protest of the deal, prompting police to use tear gas and water cannons in response.
As demonstrators burned tyres and a fake wooden coffin bearing the word “agriculture,” some farmers who were traveling to the Belgian capital from as far away as Spain and Poland brought potatoes and eggs to throw.
Source: Aljazeera
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