For Brazil, EU-Mercosur deal status remains unchanged

Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira on Wednesday told lawmakers at the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the conditions for concluding a free-trade deal between the European Union and Mercosur (the trade alliance between Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay) remain “similar” to last year even after the recent EU Parliament election.

Far-right parties, which have strongly opposed a deal with Mercosur to seize momentum from recent protests staged by European farmers, have made important strides in the European Parliament.

“I believe we are close, and we managed to overcome some hardships … There is goodwill to conclude the agreement; I believe we can do it this year,” he said.

“The [EU-Mercosur] agreement is very important, very comprehensive. It’s a very tough and laborious negotiation. But there is an interest on both sides,” he added. 

The minister declared that the negotiations were “formally paralyzed” just before the EU Parliament elections, but “informal consultations” continued.

Mr. Vieira reaffirmed that, in agreement with its partners, Brazil has maintained its leadership on the Mercosur side of the negotiations, even after Paraguay assumed the bloc’s rotating presidency late last year. “We worked this year alongside the European Union,” he said.

Approved in 2019, the EU-Mercosur deal has hanged by an ever-thinning thread. And as The Brazilian Report has shown, the results of the EU Parliament election may have delivered a death blow to any possibility of a new agreement being reached. 

France has been a roadblock to the deal’s ratification, as groups from across the political spectrum try not to disrupt the country’s strong agricultural lobby. Even President Emmanuel Macron, who is more in favor of free trade than most French politicians, has opposed the deal.

During a visit to Brazil in March, Mr. Macron stated that the current draft deal is “terrible” for both sides and that he had taken a “position of principle” against the agreement, which he said was separate from his country’s positive bilateral relations with Brazil.

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