Brussels will start vote on Mercosur trade deal
Brussels (dpa) – The European Commission will begin the final voting procedure on Wednesday for the planned massive free trade zone with the South American bloc Mercosur. According to a spokesperson for the authority led by Ursula von der Leyen, the legal texts for the agreements with the Mercosur countries Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay will be presented to the member states.
It was recently expected that the Commission would take the opportunity to present the planned agreement in such a way that the trade part with the new customs regulations could be decided by a majority vote and could not be blocked by national parliaments. This would reduce the risk that critical countries like France, Italy, and Poland could halt the plans. Member states would then only have a veto right regarding the planned agreements on political dialogue and cooperation.
The EU Commission had concluded negotiations on the Mercosur agreement last December despite ongoing concerns. Prior to that, the then federal government had pressured to finalize the negotiations and present the text of the agreement to the EU states for a vote.
The agreement between the EU and the Mercosur states would create one of the largest free trade zones in the world, with more than 700 million inhabitants. It aims to reduce tariffs and thereby boost trade. However, critics fear that European farmers could be forced into a ruthless price competition and that deforestation in the South American rainforest could be exacerbated. The EU Commission and the German federal government see this as alarmism and assume that the overall economic benefits would clearly outweigh the drawbacks. (September 2)
