Q
finally, after 25 very long years, last Friday, December 6, Mercosur and the European Union reached a broad and solid agreement. The forecast now is that within twenty-four months at most – read two years – the points of the agreement will already be in force.
In Brazil it is said that it is the biggest deal in the world
. Even leaving aside the usual tendency of Brazilians to exaggerate, it is inevitable to highlight the immense importance of what was achieved.
And why attribute much of the success of the negotiations to Lula? For several solid reasons.
Firstly, because at no time did he stop putting all his efforts into achieving the success that has now been achieved. And, furthermore, because throughout those twenty-five years, he presided over the largest, most populous and richest country in Mercosur for a decade: eight in his first two terms, and now he is halfway through his second. In addition, he had his successor, Dilma Rousseff, from the same Workers’ Party (PT), presiding for another six: four of the first term and two of the second, until she was defenestrated by a coup.
It is striking that the morning conservative of Rio de Janeiro Or Globewhich did not for a minute even nurture vestiges of admiration for Lula da Silva and his governments, has described the agreement as a historical moment
.
It will never be too much to reiterate that the announcement, made in Montevideo during the meeting in the Uruguayan capital between the two groups, Mercosur and the European Union, reaches some 700 million people and brings together a gross domestic product (GDP) that together exceeds 22 trillion dollars . This is something close to 25 percent of global GDP.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, did not hide her satisfaction with the result.
Already the far-right Argentine president, Javier Milei, despite having signed the agreement, insisted on his tune. On the same day that he assumed the presidency of the group – it is Argentina’s turn for a semester – he said that Mercosur is a prison
and then a long line of failures
which, in his opinion, the bloc suffers from. And at no time did he hide his true intention, which is to negotiate bilateral agreements with the United States, especially now, when his friend and inspiration Donald Trump will assume the presidency of the most powerful country in the world.
Mercosur rules prevent agreements that do not bring together the four, that is, no country can, in isolation, act in this regard.
Brazil will remain rigorous so that everything that is foreseen as a non-negotiable rule within Mercosur is fulfilled. Therefore, moments of tension with Milei are expected.
And no one in the government nurtures the faintest hope that progress will be made in social areas, human rights, and environmental protection, issues that provoke a strong allergic reaction in Argentines.
The main expectation is related to what Milei will try to do. And how Donald Trump will treat the bloc, where the one who is perhaps his most ardent fan outside the United States is sheltered – although without any comfort.
