2023-06-12 23:51:00
The Brazilian president criticized this Monday the European laws “which modify the balance of the agreement” between the European Union and Mercosur.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday that “mistrust” could not guide the trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the Mercosur countries, deploring the environmental demands of Europeans.
“Between strategic partners there must be mutual trust and not distrust and sanctions,” Lula said at a joint press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Mercosur, an alliance between Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, reached an agreement with the EU in 2019 after more than 20 years of negotiations, but the pact has not been ratified, partly in due to European concerns over the environmental policies of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022).
An agreement by the end of the year?
Positions changed with the return to power in January of Lula for a third term at the head of Latin America’s largest economy, but the environmental demands of the Europeans, contained in an additional document to the agreement, cooled the enthusiasm of the South American bloc.
“I explained to President von der Leyen Brazil’s concerns,” Lula said during the press conference at the Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia.
This document “expands Brazil’s obligations and subjects them to sanctions in the event of non-compliance”, he regretted. The Brazilian president criticized European laws “which alter the balance of the agreement”. A law adopted in April, for example, prohibits the import into Europe of products such as cocoa, coffee, wood or soy from deforested land.
“These initiatives represent potential restrictions on agricultural and industrial exports from Brazil,” Lula said.
Ursula von der Leyen for her part was optimistic, saying she hoped that the agreement between the two blocs would be ratified “by the end of the year at the latest”.
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