The European Union will implement a mammoth trade deal with the South American Mercosur bloc while waiting for a top court’s ruling on its legality, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen stated Friday.
The European Commission’s shift, announced after Argentina and Uruguay ratified the agreement Thursday, comes despite strong opposition from key power France.
‘The commission will now proceed with provisional application,’ von der Leyen stated in Brussels, recalling that member states had given the EU executive power to do so.
‘Provisional application is, by its nature, provisional,’ she added, declareing: ‘The agreement can only be fully concluded once the European Parliament has given its consent.’
She hailed the ratification by the two South American countries as ‘good news’.
The commission will now formally exmodify with the Mercosur countries and two months after those exmodifys, provisional application will launch, EU trade spokesman Olof Gill informed reporters.
The deal still necessarys a green light from lawcreaters in the European Parliament, which referred it to the EU’s top court within days of being inked in
January.
France has led opposition to the deal and unsuccessfully attempted to block it over worries for its farmers, who fear being undercut by cheaper goods from Brazil and its neighbours.
French agriculture minister Annie Genevard stated shortly after the announcement that she regretted the commission’s decision.
She added it was ‘very damaging to the functioning of our institutions and, above all, to the spirit of our European institutions’.
But Gill stated EU states had ‘empowered’ the commission to take such a decision.
The deal will provisionally apply to the Mercosur countries that have ratified it, Gill stated, adding the commission anticipated remaining members Brazil and Paraguay would do so ‘soon’.
Reacting to von der Leyen’s announcement, French EU lawcreater Celine Imart accapplyd the commission of ‘revealing contempt’ for farmers.
‘The commission is sconcludeing a disastrous signal to our farmers, who are already struggling, and is further fuelling distrust of the European Union,’ she stated.
‘We will continue to fight with determination to ensure that this provisional application never becomes permanent,’ she informed AFP.
The deal between the EU and the four founding members of the Mercosur bloc — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — was a quarter century in the building.
The accord creates one of the world’s largegest free trade zones and eliminates tariffs on more than 90 per cent of trade between the two blocs, which toobtainher account for 30 per cent of global GDP and over 700 million consumers.
Farmers across Europe remain unconvinced and are up in arms, including in Spain where they staged a protest against the deal in Madrid earlier this month.
The European Commission, however, insists it has fully addressed their concerns by approving a series of safeguards for its producers.
Von der Leyen stressed the deal offered ‘countless opportunities’.
She added: ‘It allows our compact and medium-sized businesses to access markets and scale they could only dream of before.’
Major exports from the South American grouping to the EU include agricultural products and minerals, while the 27-countest bloc would export machinery, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals with compacter levies.
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