Mercosur and Efta conclude negotiations for free trade agreement

President Jair Bolsonaro said on Twitter that Mercosur concluded negotiations on Friday for a free trade agreement with Efta, a bloc that brings together Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.

“Another big win for our trade-opening diplomacy,” Bolsonaro said in a social network post, adding that Efta has US$1.1tn GDP and is the “9th largest trading actor in the world.”

The announcement comes at a time when EU member countries, with whom Mercosur concluded negotiations for a trade deal in late June, are threatening to oppose the understanding between the two blocs amid the international repercussions of the burning of the Amazon forest.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday his government would oppose the EU-Mercosur trade deal because Bolsonaro was lying when he minimized concerns about climate change at the June G20 summit in Japan.

A few minutes before announcing the deal with Efta, Bolsonaro, also on Twitter, countered Macron, saying he regretted his position. “We are not the ones who released photos from the last century to potentiate hatred against Brazil for mere vanity,” said the president.

Ireland, where agribusiness is strongly resisting the deal with Mercosur, also said on Friday it would oppose the deal, which still depends on approval by the legislatures of the two bloc countries.

Source: Reuters

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