Mercosur schedules signing of agreement with the European Union for January 17th.
Paraguay will host the meeting. The country holds the rotating presidency of the South American bloc.
247 - Paraguayan Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano said on Friday (9), in a conversation with journalists, that the Foreign Ministers of Mercosur have scheduled the signing of the free trade agreement with the European Union for January 17.
Paraguay will host the meeting. The country holds the rotating presidency of Mercosur. The signing is scheduled to take place in Asunción, the Paraguayan capital. The meeting will be attended by South American leaders and the President of the European Commission (a kind of EU government), Ursula von der Leyen, according to a report by [source name missing]. CNN.
Leaders of the two blocs gave their approval this Friday (9) for the signing of the agreement. It was necessary that at least 15 of the 27 countries of the European Union, or 65% of the bloc's population, were in favor of the treaty. France, Hungary, Poland, Ireland and Austria were against the proposal. Belgium abstained.
Mercosur is made up of Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia. Associated States include Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Colombia, Panama, Peru, and Suriname.
STATISTICS
Mercosur and the EU form a market with over 720 million people and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of over US$22 trillion.
For Brazil, the largest economy in Mercosur, the treaty expands access to a market of approximately 451 million consumers.
According to estimates from the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), the Brazilian economy, in aggregate, is not expected to register negative sectoral impacts over the next 17 years. During this period, the service sector is expected to expand by 0,41%, mineral extraction should grow by 0,08%, and the manufacturing industry by 0,04%.
To proposal
Under the terms of the agreement, Mercosur commits to eliminating tariffs on 91% of European Union exports, including automobiles. In return, the European bloc will gradually remove tariffs applied to 92% of Mercosur exports, in a process that could take up to ten years.
Mercosur also agreed to eliminate tariffs on European agricultural products, such as the 27% tax on wines and the 35% tax on distilled beverages.
For agricultural items considered more sensitive, the European Union will offer increased quotas, including an additional 99 metric tons of beef. Mercosur, in turn, will grant the European Union a tariff-free quota of 30 tons for cheese imports.
According to Reuters, the European Union will also establish quotas for products such as poultry, pork, ethanol, rice, sugar, honey, corn, and sweet corn.
Conversely, Mercosur will adopt quotas for powdered milk and infant formula. The projected additional imports are equivalent to 1,6% of beef consumption and 1,4% of poultry consumption in the European Union.
