The European Union closed the free trade agreement with the countries of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) on Friday, December 6.

The deliberations took more than two decades; 25 years. And France, Poland and Italy are still opposed to this agreement.

In any case, the agreement will open the doors to a series of commercial benefits for the parties as well as investments, in addition to promoting integration in the international market.

Mercosur is made up of the South American countries Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Bolivia are in the process of joining.

“The new trade regime involves the reduction of the highest tariffs applied to imports from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, among other places. In exchange, the EU will liberalise most of the access to its market.”

According to Brussels’ calculations, the new framework will allow “European companies to save around 4 billion euros in tariffs each year.”

Exports by small and medium-sized companies will be able to increase thanks to the reduction of bureaucratic procedures. Among the agri-food products of interest to Spain are olive oil, wine, fruit and vegetables, cheese (28%) and pork.

For their part, “EU companies will be able to submit bids for public contracts on equal terms with those of Mercosur. They will have exclusive preferential access to some critical raw materials and organic products.”

This agreement still needs to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. “In addition, the parts of the agreement that include mixed competences, not exclusive to the EU, will have to be submitted for ratification by the parliaments of the  Member States.”

M.Pino

Source: newtral

(Reference image source: Christian Lue on Unsplash)

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