The president of the European Commission, Úrsula von der Leyen, met on Tuesday with the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, in Buenos Aires to try to advance the stalled trade agreement between Mercosur and the EU, pending since 2019.
On that date, the European bloc concluded negotiations on a broad trade agreement with Mercosur, which has not yet been ratified by any of the countries individually. France, Belgium and Poland have reservations on the treaty.
The stumbling block has been the harsh conditions of access to European markets for Latin American products due to the recent “Green Pact”, a set of initiatives that seek “climate neutrality” by 2050, applies harsh sanctions for non-compliance, proposes changes in energy renewable energy and land use, which would harm the commercial performance of products in Latin America.
In the case of Argentina, it would impact the strategic biodiesel, which in 2022 represented sales of more than 1,800 million dollars, 20% of the world total.
Von del Leyen set the “ambitious goal” of concluding the treaty by the end of the year.
“We have a window of opportunity to close the deal. We have negotiated it and we have written a letter and we await an answer. I believe that the bulk of the agreement has already been made and should be used so as not to lose this opportunity before the end of the year, because it would be a shame, ”he said.
He also noted that both parties are “strategic partners and the time has come to move to the next level. The European Union seeks to integrate and strengthen value chains, make regulations more flexible and be more competitive”.
Fernández declared that he will make every effort to have the agreement signed before the end of the year, ending the imbalances and asymmetries.
“We would be happy to sign before the end of the year, but we have made comments on the agreement since 2018. Until now we run the risk that only the European Union will win and the economies of the region lose,” he explained.
He added that Argentina “is going to present to its Mercosur partners some points to unlock the agreement, in order to move forward in a fair agreement.”
“We believe in the EU-Mercosur agreement, but both must win. It is not so difficult to move the obstacles, among us there is the political will”, said the president.
The governments of Argentina and Brazil propose to carry out a thorough review of the agreement taking into account the restrictions that the greater environmental demands imply for Mercosur.
[Con información de The Associated Press]
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