BRUSSELS – Mercosur and the European Union will resume negotiations today (April 24) and until Friday 27, in order to conclude the negotiations to give way to the signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
In this regard, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay, Ambassador Eladio Loizaga, informed on Monday that the Guaraní delegation that attends the meeting is headed by Ambassador Luis Fernando Ávalos, Vice Minister of Economic Relations and Integration, and National Coordinator of the Common Market Group (GMC), who will join the negotiating heads of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, for the dialogue with the European representatives.
He said that in the four days of negotiations in Brussels they will try to close the round of negotiations in order to subsequently sign the Bi-regional Free Trade Agreement, which has been in negotiations for 19 years.
Loizaga announced that the foreign ministers of the four Mercosur countries will be present: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay; the Trade Commissioner of the European Union, Cecilia Malström, and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan.
Referring to the round of negotiations in Brussels, the Paraguayan Foreign Minister recalled that the European Union still has pending issues to the offer presented by Mercosur, which will now be clarified.
“Hopefully we reach a final decision and we can sign the agreement, because it will be a great support for the development of our country, the possibility of investment and the generation of employment, because that is the only way to fight against poverty,” he said.
Finally, Minister Loizaga commented that the signed agreement will be communicated to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which is a body that was created with the purpose of having legal, legal, and commercial relations.
