The European Union reached a blockbuster free trade agreement Friday with Brazil, Argentina and the three other South American nations in the Mercosur trade alliance, capping a quarter-century of on-off negotiations even as France vowed to derail the contentious accord. <\/p>\n
Provided it is ratified, the accord would create one of the world\u2019s largest free trade zones, covering a market of 780 million people that represents nearly a quarter of global gross domestic product. <\/p>\n
The accord\u2019s proponents in Brussels say it would save businesses some $4.26 billion in duties each year, slashing red tape and removing tariffs on products like Italian wine, Argentine steak, Brazilian oranges and German Volkswagens. <\/p>\n
Its critics in France, the Netherlands and other countries with big dairy and beef industries say the pact would subject local farmers to unfair competition and cause environmental damage. <\/p>\n
From Uruguay, the host of the Mercosur summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the deal as a \u201ctruly historic milestone\u201d at a time when global protectionism is on the rise. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know that strong winds are blowing in the opposite direction, toward isolation and fragmentation, but this agreement is our clear response,\u201d von der Leyen said, an apparent reference to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s vows to protect American workers and goods. <\/p>\n
Under pressure from his country\u2019s powerful and vocal farming lobby, French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday the deal remained \u201cunacceptable\u201d as it stands and stressed that governments have not yet seen \u201cthe final outcome\u201d of negotiations. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe agreement has neither been signed nor ratified. This is not the end of the story,\u201d Macron\u2019s office said, adding that France demands additional safeguards for farmers and commitments to sustainable development and health controls. <\/p>\n
For France to block the deal, it would need the support of three or more other EU member states representing at least 35% of the bloc\u2019s population. <\/p>\n
The French government, which has been rallying countries to oppose the pact, named Austria, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland as other wary states that share French concerns about the deal. <\/p>\n
To take effect, the pact must also be endorsed by the European Parliament. <\/p>\n
In remarks aimed at her \u201cfellow Europeans,\u201d and perhaps in particular French skeptics, von der Leyen promised the accord would boost 60,000 businesses through lower tariffs, streamlined customs procedures and preferential access to raw materials otherwise supplied by China. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis will create huge business opportunities,\u201d von der Leyen said. <\/p>\n
She then turned to address European farmers who fear that an influx of cheap food imports will jeopardize their livelihoods. South American countries do not have to adhere to the same standards for animal treatment and pesticide use. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have heard you, listened to your concerns, and we are acting on them,\u201d von der Leyen said. <\/p>\n
Outrage over environmental rules, rising costs and unregulated imports has unleashed massive farmers\u2019 protests across the continent over the past year. <\/p>\n
Leaders on both sides of the Atlantic who long have pushed for the deal praised the announcement Friday, welcoming the results as a boon for export industries. <\/p>\n
It marks the first major trade agreement for Mercosur, which is comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and, newly, Bolivia. The bloc had previously only managed to conclude free-trade deals with Egypt, Israel and Singapore. <\/p>\n
\u201cAn important obstacle to the agreement has been overcome,\u201d said Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, where the nation\u2019s vaunted car industry is poised to profit. <\/p>\n
From Spain, Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez called the agreement \u201can unprecedented economic bridge.\u201d <\/p>\n
At the Mercosur summit in Uruguay\u2019s capital of Montevideo, Brazil\u2019s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva praised \u201ca modern and balanced text which recognizes Mercosur\u2019s environmental credentials.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are securing new markets for our exports and strengthening investment flows,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency said it expects the pact to boost the nation\u2019s Europe-bound exports by $7 billion. <\/p>\n
Libertarian President Javier Milei of Argentina described the accord as aligning with his free market principles. Argentines are excited about selling more beef and agricultural products in the EU. <\/p>\n
The deal is the product of 25 years of painstaking negotiations, dating back to a Mercosur summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1999. Talks collapsed over differences in economic priorities, regulatory standards and agricultural policies. The rise of protectionist tendencies also repeatedly upended hopes. <\/p>\n
Momentum picked up in 2016, as former President Trump imposed harsh tariffs on Europe. At the same time, market-friendly governments came to power in South America\u2019s biggest economies, Brazil and Argentina, which had been closed for years. <\/p>\n
In June 2019, negotiators announced a deal that included provisions for tariff reductions and commitments to environmental standards. <\/p>\n
But it was never implemented. In Brazil, the region\u2019s economic powerhouse, right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, presided over record levels of deforestation in the Amazon, prompting EU governments to demand tougher sustainability criteria. In Argentina, a new left-wing protectionist government opposed the deal. <\/p>\n
But things picked up as the region\u2019s politics shifted again in 2023. Brazil\u2019s President Lula rode to power on pledges to rein in illegal logging, soothing concerns that the pact could accelerate deforestation. Argentina\u2019s Milei is working to open the nation\u2019s notoriously closed and crisis-stricken economy. <\/p>\n
But if past EU trade agreements are any indication, ratification could take years. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe celebrate it, but it\u2019s still far from reality,\u201d Milei said of the accord. <\/p>\n
In 2016, the EU and Canada signed a pact, known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, but the approval process is still lumbering along. <\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s parliament only signed off on that pact two years ago, and the French Senate rejected it in March this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone with any memory is skeptical,\u201d said Brian Winter, a vice president of the New York-based Council of the Americas. \u201cThey have trotted out leaders and declared victory and celebrated, and yet there always seems to be a hitch.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The European Union reached a blockbuster free trade agreement Friday with Brazil, Argentina and the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}