The EU must finalise a long-delayed trade treaty with the Mercosur bloc of South American nations by December 6 or the Latin Americans will walk away and negotiate with Asian countries instead, Paraguay’s president Santiago Peña has said.
Expressing frustration with negotiations that have dragged on for more than 20 years, Peña told the Financial Times that the time had come for European leaders to take a political decision on whether they wanted a deal with the four full Mercosur member nations — Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. “This is no longer a technical issue,” he said.
A treaty was agreed in principle in 2019 but the EU has not enacted the deal because some member states, including France, want additional environmental commitments from South America before signing. The Mercosur nations have rejected this as protectionism from European nations scared of competition from South American beef and wine exports.