By Philip Blenkinsop
STOCKHOLM, March 10 (Reuters) – The European Union is considering a major free trade deal with Brazil and its Mercosur neighbors, with the possibility of making “decisive breakthroughs” before July, a senior official said on Friday. of the EU and the Swedish Trade Minister.
The EU and the Mercosur bloc, made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, concluded negotiations in 2019, but the agreement was suspended due to concerns, including from France, regarding deforestation in the Amazon and the level of Brazil’s commitment. to act against climate change.
The European Commission has offered Mercosur to agree to clear sustainability commitments, on which European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said he was already consulting EU members and lawmakers and Mercosur countries.
“We see the upcoming EU-Latin America summit in July as an important point of reference, for when we should have decisive progress on this,” he said after a meeting of EU trade ministers in Stockholm.
Johan Forssell, trade minister of Sweden, the country holding the rotating EU presidency, expressed his hope that the process could be completed in the coming months.
“I think there is real support to go in this direction,” he told a press conference. “Of course there are concerns, details and technicalities, but I think we are moving in the right direction.”
The European Union believes that Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula in October’s Brazilian presidential elections has created a window of opportunity.
Simon Coveney, Ireland’s trade minister, who like France is wary of rising beef imports, said his colleagues believed a final deal could be finalized this year. (Report by Philip Blenkinsop Editing in Spanish by Javier López de Lérida)