EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday “the devil is always in the details” as she spoke of a budding South America trade deal that France has vowed to block at all costs.
Von der Leyen, speaking to Brazil’s Globo News on the eve of a G20 summit she is attending in Rio de Janeiro, admitted that her European Commission faced “a big task” in getting member countries of the EU and South America’s Mercosur bloc on board.
“We have to include all 27 heads of state and government and member states of the European Union and, of course, on the side of Mercosur. So all partners of Mercosur will also have to be ready to sign,” she said.
“So that’s always at the very end a big task to overcome,” she said. “The final stretch is the most important, but also the most difficult, often.”
The European Union and the four founding members of Mercosur — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay — have been working to make a trade pact between their blocs a reality for 25 years.
Although the contours of a deal were agreed in 2019, some EU countries have blocked it going any further.
Other EU countries, though — notably Spain and Germany — are pressing for a rapid conclusion to the Mercosur agreement. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has suggested the G20 summit or a Mercosur gathering in Uruguay in December were prime opportunities to do so.
“We are going to continue to oppose” a final accord, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday as he wrapped up an Argentina visit and headed to Brazil for the G20 summit.
He added that “I don’t believe” the EU can sign a Mercosur trade pact without France’s buy-in.
– Farmers’ protests –
Macron’s Prime Minister Michel Barnier has labeled the Mercosur deal “unacceptable,” while his finance minister Antoine Armand — also attending the G20 — has said “all means” will be used “to ensure that Mercosur is not adopted in its current form.”
Paris and Brussels have been the scene of repeated protests against Mercosur by farmers who fear they will be undercut by what they view as unfair South American competition.
Farmers across France were to demonstrate again on Monday against the putative pact.
The European Commission sees itself as having sole power to strike the Mercosur and other trade deals. But it “won’t proceed without political agreement” among the bloc’s member states, one official in von der Leyen’s entourage told AFP.
Von der Leyen was to meet Sunday with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
In her interview, the EU chief emphasized that “Europe is the largest trading partner of Brazil” and the largest partner for direct foreign investment.
The EU-Mercosur deal aims to reduce tariffs between the blocs — a subject that will be on leaders’ minds at the G20 summit, given that Donald Trump has vowed to hike tariffs when he again becomes US president in two months’ time.
The 27-nation European Union has a combined nominal GDP of $18.4 trillion, according to the World Bank.
The four founding Mercosur countries involved in the trade negotiations have a combined GDP of $2.9 trillion. Their biggest exports to Europe last year were mineral products, foodstuffs, vegetable products, and beverages and tobacco.
