“It’s bad for Portugal”: EU and Mercosur postpone agreement

With the trade war with the USA, and with the unfriendly China, South America would be “an interesting solution for Europe”.

The signature of the agreement between the European Union (UE) and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) will be postponed for January.

A European source told Lusa that the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, informed EU leaders that she had postponed the trip to Brasília to sign the agreement until January 2026.

“There was no clear path for the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and there was no clear path to support Ukraine [assente na utilização dos recursos russos imobilizados]”, commented Ursula von der Leyen.

Luis Montenegro says it is convinced that the trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur will be signed in next weeks, stating that “a very significant insistence” from Portugal contributed to the “pre-decision” in Brussels.

“It was initially planned that its subscription could take place next weekend, precisely during the Mercosur meeting taking place in Brazil, and given the lack of conditions for this to happen, we made a very, very significant insistence not to leave here without the guarantees that this could happen very quickly”, declared the Prime Minister of Portugal.

According to the agency France-Presse (AFP), the Brazilian President, Lula da Silva, talked with the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, to try to unlock approval of the agreement.

Giorgia Meloni reportedly asked for the signing of the agreement to be postponed to give European producers more confidence.

But this postponement It is bad for the European Union and, consequently, for Portugal.

The eagerness comes from Luís Mira, general secretary of the Portuguese Farmers Confederation: “It doesn’t seem like it’s positive for the European Union”.

“At a time when there is a declared trade war with the USA, ea China, another large bloc, is also not a friendly partner of Europe, (Mercosur) It’s an interesting solution for Europe”.

“E very interesting for Portugalbecause of this market that has the Brazil with 210 million consumers, Argentina with 47 million and the Uruguay with ten and the Paraguay with four, it is the largest Portuguese-speaking market in the entire world. Having access to this market without tariffs is a great advantage for Portugal, for olive oil, for wine, for fruit, for other types of products”, commented Luís Mira, on .

Brazil was going to organize a meeting on Saturday, December 20th, to sign the agreement that has been negotiated for decades.

At the beginning of the week, the European Parliament approved safeguard clauses for European producers, which include monitoring market fluctuations and the possibility of applying unilateral customs duties to prevent producers from the 27 from being harmed by imports from Mercosur countries.

O Mercosur is made up of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia.