CNI and BusinessEurope sign a letter of support for the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union

The National Confederation of Industry (CNI) and the Confederation of European Companies (BusinessEurope) released this Monday (12) a joint letter in which they support the implementation of the trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, stopped for more than two decades and stuck for environmental issues.

The joint signing of the document follows the visit of the President of the European Commission to Brazil, Ursula von der Leyen, to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who will have a meeting at the Planalto Palace at 1 pm.

According to the document, the implementation of the agreement will create one of the “largest free trade areas in the world that would cover almost a quarter of the global economy and 31% of world exports of goods”, in addition to “achieving climate neutrality” (see in full).

“The EU (European Union) and Brazil have traditionally been important trading partners. Bilateral trade reached a record value of nearly €90.5 billion (R$475.4 billion) last year. Investments have also had strong ties, with the EU investing more than €277 billion (R$1.4 trillion) in Brazil and receiving around €132 billion (R$693 billion) in Brazilian direct investment, making the country the largest Latin American investor in the EU”, he says.

The two business entities also explain that bilateral trade and investment relations are below potential, and that the geopolitical moment in the world with increases in energy prices, bottlenecks in supply chains and “geopolitical frictions that bring the world to the brink of of a new wave of protectionism” make the agreement all the more necessary.

“We are concerned that these circumstances have exacerbated the regrettable decline in the relevance of the EU-Brazil trade relationship in favor of other major competitors – a situation in which the Mercosur-EU Agreement would help to revive the bilateral trade relationship”, they record in the note stating that the Union The European currently accounts for only 16% of global imports in Brazil, occupying only the third position as a supplier to the country.

Finally, CNI and BusinessEurope claim that there is a “window of opportunity” that needs to be taken advantage of “towards the ratification of the agreement” during the rotating presidencies of Sweden and Spain in the European Union and Brazil in Mercosur.