{"id":423969,"date":"2024-11-28T12:01:01","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T12:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=423969"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Brussels-not-Paris-will-decide-EU-Mercosur-trade-deal-Lula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Brussels-not-Paris-will-decide-EU-Mercosur-trade-deal-Lula\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels, not Paris, will decide EU-Mercosur trade deal: Lula"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>France does not get to decide whether a free trade deal between the EU and South America&#8217;s Mercosur bloc goes ahead &#8212; only Brussels does, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Lula added firmly: &#8220;I intend to sign this agreement this year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Brazil&#8217;s position, stressed by Lula in a speech on Brazilian industry, crosses swords with that of France, which is determined to block the trade pact.<\/p>\n<p>The blockbuster deal between the 27-country European Union and Mercosur countries &#8212; Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay &#8212; has been 25 years in the making and would create the world&#8217;s biggest free trade zone.<\/p>\n<p>The contours of the agreement with the Mercosur bloc &#8212; which Brazil dominates &#8212; were agreed in 2019, but progress on completing the pact has stalled since.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, France&#8217;s parliament overwhelmingly backed President Emmanuel Macron in rejecting the EU-Mercosur deal, which has prompted protests by French farmers fearing it would bring unfair competition.<\/p>\n<p>Trade policy for the whole European Union, however, is determined by the European Commission, run by Ursula von der Leyen, on the basis of what most EU member states agree.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If the French don&#8217;t want the agreement, they don&#8217;t get to blow the final whistle &#8212; the European Commission will blow that whistle,&#8221; Lula said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ursula von der Leyen has the power to make the agreement happen,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>France needs three other EU countries to join it to form a blocking minority against the deal. So far Poland has publicly rallied to its side.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But Germany and Spain have both said they want the trade deal completed swiftly.<\/p>\n<p>At a G20 summit in Rio last week, Macron reiterated his opposition to the Mercosur deal and said France was working with Poland, Austria, Italy and other EU countries &#8220;that have the same concerns.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Von der Leyen, who also participated in the G20 summit, admitted on arrival that her commission had a &#8220;big task&#8221; in getting EU member countries behind the trade deal, adding: &#8220;The devil is always in the details.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The EU&#8217;s outgoing foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, this week backed the deal being done by the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is about much more than just trade; it is above all a geopolitical issue,&#8221; he said in his online blog.<\/p>\n<p>That reflects European concerns that China is making trade inroads into Latin America &#8212; and that the world could be heading into a period of trade wars triggered under Donald Trump&#8217;s protectionist &#8220;America First&#8221; policies.<\/p>\n<p>bur\/lg-rmb\/bjt<\/p>\n<p> <figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/a38dd9f62f095a609f04e2a06322fb47.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are on opposing sides when it comes to the EU-Mercosur trade pact<\/p>\n<p>-Ludovic MARIN<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure> <figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/16ecc731fcb845b81531cb5849f8e787.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>The French parliament overwhelmingly backed Macron in rejecting the Mercosur trade deal<\/p>\n<p>-Bertrand GUAY<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>France does not get to decide whether a free trade deal between the EU and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}