European Commission insists on ratifying agreements with Chile, Mercosur, and Mexico

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“These are important agreements, with great potential,” insisted the Trade Commissioner. 

The European Commission (EC) insisted last Friday on the ratification of three “important” free trade agreements already negotiated, with Chile, Mercosur, and Mexico, which remain unratified within the European Union (EU).

“To strengthen our bilateral agenda, we need to get over the finish line of negotiated agreements, such as those with Chile, Mexico, or Mercosur. These are important agreements, with great potential to generate mutual benefits,” insisted EC Executive Vice-President and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis at a press conference at the end of a Council of EU trade ministers.

He also emphasized “making progress in the ongoing negotiations for new agreements, especially with New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, and India.”

“It is a difficult time for EU trade. But our policy is strong and flexible enough to adapt to this new geopolitical reality,” Dombrovskis said, referring to the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

For the EU vice-president, “in this new reality, we must establish closer and deeper relations with reliable allies” and “get maximum value from existing agreements and make progress in signing new ones.” 

The French Trade Minister, Franck Riester, said that work must be done on guarantees on sustainable development in the agreement with Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay) so that this text can be ratified, in particular in areas such as deforestation. In this association treaty, both blocs reached in June 2019 an agreement in principle, after 20 years of negotiations, which rests on three fundamental pillars: political dialogue, cooperation, and trade.

The Spanish Secretary of State for Trade, Xiana Méndez, stressed on her arrival at the meeting that “now more than ever, in the convulsive geopolitical context we are going through, it is important that trade policy serves to diversify the supply markets and also the destination markets for European products and services.”

“And above all, to reduce dependence and to gain resilience by the EU,” he said.

For all these reasons, he also called for the ratification of the pending free trade agreements, which are “very beneficial for the EU and also for the prosperity of our trading partners.”

Source: Forbes Staff (2022, June 03). Comisión Europea insiste en ratificar acuerdos con Chile, Mercosur y México Forbes Chile. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from https://forbes.cl/economia-y-finanzas/2022-06-03/comision-europea-insiste-en-ratificar-acuerdos-con-chile-mercosur-y-mexico/