EU-Mercosur agreement guarantees "positive global balance"

Published Jan 18, 2021

Tridge summary

Portugal's Foreign Affairs Minister, Augusto Santos Silva, has defended the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, stating it brings a positive balance for both parties. However, he acknowledged concerns regarding the agreement, including compliance with the Paris Agreement, climate action, and food security standards. He also highlighted the need to address deforestation in the Amazon. To address these issues, Silva plans to use additional instruments and political statements. The final decision on the agreement's ratification lies with the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, which is currently Portugal.

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Original content

Augusto Santos Silva, who was speaking during a hearing by the Parliamentary Committee on European Affairs, stressed that the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, which is now in the process of being revised and translated, “is a balance” between both regions. “We are going to import more beef or poultry from Argentina or Brazil, but we are going to export more cars or other agri-food products. The agreement has to be seen not in terms of hurting or 'pinching' this or that particular interest, but in terms of the overall balance it makes ”, he considered. In this sense, Portugal believes that “this global balance is largely positive for both Mercosur and the European Union”. Augusto Santos Silva recalled, however, that "several Member States and the European Parliament have, however, raised three doubts about the agreement" and that they are "very different from the oppositions to the agreement resulting from economic interests allegedly 'pinched' by the agreement". ...

Source: Agro Portugal