"We have reached out to our Mercosur partners and agreed to postpone slightly the signature,"
"crucially important for Europe economically, diplomatically, and geopolitically."
"We are working to postpone the Mercosur summit, which will give us more weeks to try to provide the answers our farmers are demanding and the safeguards needed for our products,"
"This will allow us to approve the Mercosur agreement when, as we have said, we have all the guarantees required by a sector that could otherwise be affected."
EU leaders at a Brussels summit postponed signing of a free trade deal with four Mercosur countries until January after 25 years of negotiations remained unresolved. The delay is intended to give negotiators more time to find compromise and finalize safeguards. Supporters including Germany, Spain and Nordic countries argue the agreement will boost exports and reduce reliance on China. Critics including France, Italy and Poland fear an influx of cheap South American commodities would harm European farmers. Large protests, primarily by farmers, accompanied the negotiations and increased pressure to provide agricultural guarantees before approval.
Read at www.dw.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]