Brazil keen to show EU-Mercosur accord still has support in Europe
Brazilian Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina Dias said Portugal favors swift approval of the trade agreement between the European Union and the South American trade bloc Mercosur as she visited Lisbon, according to a statement late on Monday.
“We remain committed so that the agreement can be quickly put into practice,” Maria do Céu Antunes, Portugal’s agriculture minister said in a statement from the Brazilian agriculture ministry.
On Oct. 7, the European Parliament passed an amendment that indicated that the deal with Mercosur should not be ratified as it stands, the latest expression of opposition to an agreement that needs to be approved by all 27 EU member states.
France and Ireland have threatened to vote against a trade deal unless Brazil takes its environmental obligations more seriously. Last month, the French government said that a new report on deforestation confirmed its opposition to the current version of the EU-Mercosur trade deal.
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