EU-Mercosur: Lula asks for meeting to obtain resolution – 09/11/2023 – Market

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva urged European heads of state and government to hold a meeting with Mercosur leaders to hammer out the EU-Mercosur agreement by the end of 2023, when Brazil’s pro-tempore presidency in the southern bloc ends. -American – or else abandon the trade treaty negotiations.

“In the coming months we need to reach a yes or no, or stop discussing this agreement, we have been discussing it for 22 years, no one can take it anymore”, said Lula, in a press conference this Monday (11) after the Brazilian president’s participation in the G20 summit meeting. “We want and need (the agreement). But we want to be treated on equal terms, and reach a balance point.”

The agreement between the two blocs began to be officially negotiated in 1999. In March of this year, the Europeans presented an “additional letter” with new environmental requirements that go beyond those determined by the Paris Agreement and now include sanctions for alleged non-compliance with goals.

“I told them (President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, and President of the European Council, Charles Michel) and (French President, Emmanuel) Macron that I am willing to do the deal while we (Brazil) are in the presidency of Mercosur”, said Lula.

But the Brazilian leader stated that he will not accept “sanctions and the idea of ​​government purchases”. “Government purchases are an instrument of industrial policy for each country – it was like that in Germany, in the USA, and it will be like that in Brazil.”

Brazil wants changes to the government procurement chapter agreed by Paulo Guedes, then Minister of Economy. The Lula government wants to preserve protections for some sectors in order to make industrial policy. But Europeans say that would mean reopening negotiations on the treaty. “Brazil wants to use government purchases to encourage small and medium-sized Brazilian entrepreneurs; it is the least that can be expected from a government that wants to reindustrialize the country.”

In a conversation with the French president on Sunday, Lula stated that the new environmental demands from Europeans to close the EU-Mercosur agreement were “offensive” and “inadmissible”. And he told the Frenchman that, at this moment, a political decision by the European Union is necessary to close the agreement. In the Brazilian government’s view, the demands were designed for the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro, which was accumulating setbacks in environmental policy, and would not be fair in the context of the Lula government.

There will be a meeting with the European delegation, at a technical level, on September 21, in Brasília. According to Chancellor Mauro Vieira, it is essential that Mercosur countries are considered “low risk” and that there is no interference from legislation that could harm the group’s exports.