German Chancellor urges to close agreements with Mercosur and other regions

The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has urged the European Union on Tuesday to quickly close free trade agreements with key regions such as Mercosur, with whom the process has been stalled for a long time, because in his opinion if the Europeans lag behind other powers they will step up and “lay down the rules.”

“Europe has to look at the rest of the world, because if we continue negotiating new Free Trade Agreements for decades without results, it will be others who step forward, and it will be others who dictate environmental norms and social standards,” warned Scholz, in a debate on the occasion of Europe Day at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg (France).

The German Chancellor has defended the importance of advancing in trade relations with other regions of the world to strengthen the “geopolitical” position of the European Union and for this reason he has considered it essential that the bloc quickly conclude new trade pacts with “Mercosur, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Australia, Kenya and many other countries in the future.”

Scholz has thus advocated for “fair” agreements that serve to “promote the economic development of our partners and not to hinder it”, while warning that by this he means, for example, that the process of transforming materials premiums are made where they are obtained “and not in China or any other place.”

Likewise, he has assured that if the EU manages to consolidate these principles in its commercial relations with third parties, it will also be able to reinforce the objective of diversifying the sources of supply for the countries of the bloc.

Source: dpa

(Reference image source: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa)

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