Mercosur-EU FTA Close To Completion

The Latin American economic bloc Mercosur has nearly concluded a free trade agreement with the European Union (EU), Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said on February 24.

Mercosur, which consists of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela, has been negotiating the deal with the EU for fourteen years. Both sides are hopeful that an agreement will be reached after a meeting on March 21. "For the first time, I think we are close to achieving that objective; I think both sides are very much aware of the importance of this trade agreement," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said. Barroso also said that an EU-Mercosur trade agreement "will allow for the completion of an economic area in the long run between Europe and South America." The trade talks were a key part of the seventh Brazil-EU summit held in Brussels. Brazil also took the opportunity to raise the issue of the EU's recent World Trade Organization actions against Brazilian tax policies in the Free Economic Zone of Manaus. "We were puzzled by the dispute regarding programs which are essential to the sustainable development of the Brazilian economy, though we know it was simply a preliminary consultation," Rousseff said. She insisted that the disagreement would not affect the EU-Mercosur trade talks.

Source: Tax News