President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended changes in points of the free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union (EU). After a meeting with the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, at the Planalto Palace, this Monday (30), the two leaders participated in a press conference and addressed various issues on the bilateral agenda.
“We’re going to work very hard. Something has to be changed. It can’t be done as it is,” said Lula, when asked about the progress of the agreement.
“One thing that, for us, is very expensive are [as] government purchases. In a developing country like Brazil, government procurement is a way for you to grow small and medium-sized companies. If we give up on this, we are throwing away the opportunity for our small and medium-sized companies to grow. Obviously, we’re going to sit around the table as openly as possible. The middle ground is you improve something for those who [se] they feel harmed”, said the president. Even so, Lula promised to close the agreement in about six months. “Until the end of this semester, it is our idea to try to forward and discuss other issues”, he said.
Negotiated for more than 20 years, the EU-Mercosur agreement had a general completion announcement in 2019, but there is still a long way to go before its effective entry into force. This is because the treaty needs to be ratified and internalized by each member state of both economic blocs. In practice, it means that the agreement will have to be approved by the parliaments and national governments of the 31 countries involved, a procedure that will take years and may face resistance.
On the German side, Scholz also defended a quick advance of the agreement and praised President Lula’s “energy” in trying to complete the terms in a few months. The German leader mentioned the presence of more than a thousand companies in Brazil and said that he intends to make this number grow even more.
“President Lula and I agree that the EU-Mercosur agreement is in the interest of both regions and we both want a quick definition on this issue. The agreement should pave the way for the transformation of our economies, strengthen technological, environmental cooperation , climate change and raise the bar in labor and social terms,” he said.
OECD
Lula was also questioned about maintaining the country’s interest in joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in which Brazil’s entry was sewn in the previous government.
“What do we want to know? [é] what is Brazil’s role in the OECD. You cannot participate in an international organization by being a smaller, inferior citizen, as if you were an observer”, said the president. Lula acknowledged having been against Brazil’s entry into the OECD in his previous administrations, but said he is willing to discuss entry now.
Created in 1961, and headquartered in Paris, the OECD is an international organization currently formed by 37 countries, including some of the main developed economies in the world, such as the United States, Japan and countries of the European Union. It is seen as a “club of the rich”, but also has among its members emerging Latin American economies such as Mexico, Chile and Colombia.
