The president of the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex), Jorge Viana, said, this Thursday, the 22nd, that the permanent tension between the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and Europe helps the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union (EU). The statement was made in an interview at the agency’s headquarters.
“The president of the United States is helping a lot with this, because he has a lot of tension with Europe, all the time. And, obviously, Europe will have to remodel its economic geopolitics,” he said.
According to Viana, the environment is favorable to accelerate the Mercosur-EU agreement and the government needs to work on Brazil’s image in public opinion in Europe.
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Still, he says that a solution will be found in 2026 to make the agreement viable, which was judicialized by the European Commission. “We will find the solution, I am very optimistic, and I think it will still be in 2026. We will work towards it, here and there”, he stated.
He also declared that 47% of Brazil-EU trade is manufacturing industry and 23% is agriculture. In this context, the president of Apex said he wanted to take the Brazilian Parliament’s mission to the EU. The president of Congress, Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), would have already come across this mission.
For Viana, the strategy is to approve the Mercosur-EU agreement as soon as possible in the Mercosur Parliaments and then go there with arguments to speed up approval by the Europeans. With the agreement approved in Brazil, Viana estimates that the parliamentary mission to Europe will take place, at the latest, by March of this year.
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Parliament’s legitimate movement
For the president of Apex, the judicialization of the European Commission is a legitimate movement to delay the validity of the mechanism. “Judicializing is a way of delaying. Is it legitimate? Of course it is legitimate. It is part of the process. But we can also make another move. What can Brazil do at this time? Speed up the vote. Ask congressmen to vote on the Mercosur agreement”, he stated.
According to him, it is necessary to change the image of Brazilian agriculture in Europe and, therefore, there will be an educational/advertising campaign: “We are going to have to do this with an image. Image of agriculture, of products, but we are going to do an almost educational campaign about Brazil.”
For Viana, small Brazilian producers will also benefit from the agreement with the European Union, as in the honey market, as there are complementary markets and products without direct competition in Europe.
