Mercosur, a trade bloc made up of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, has closed an agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the latter said late last week, after concluding negotiations in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
As previously anticipated by SteelOrbis, the agreement was expected to be closed “in a few days,” following the announcement of Brazilian officials at the Brazil Steel Congress in Brasília, last week.
EFTA is comprised of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
According to EFTA, the deal is a “comprehensive and broad-based Free Trade Agreement,” covering trade in a number of sectors, including “goods, services, investment, intellectual property rights, government procurement, competition, trade and sustainable development, legal and horizontal issues including dispute settlement.”
The deal took was closed despite growing concerns by France and Ireland about the Mercosur-European Union (EU) agreement.
The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, said Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, lied to him at a recent G-20 summit about the nation’s environmental commitments. Tensions with France continued during the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France.
EFTA said Mercosur is an “important trading partner.”
EFTA-Mercosur trade in goods has totaled EUR 5.8 billion in 2018, with EFTA exports reaching about EUR 3.7 billion, and Mercosur imports for EUR 2.1 billion. EFTA said auto parts were included in the trade agreement.