ISDS Case Map
Mercosur
French president tells Brazil forum both parties need to be ‘much stronger’ on biodiversity and climate.
Parliamentary representatives from European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland) stop in Buenos Aires as part of regional tour focusing on efforts to secure free-trade deal with the Mercosur bloc.
After a seven-year hiatus, Japan and Mercosur — Latin America’s largest trading bloc — plan to resume talks next month to decide whether to launch formal negotiations on a major, bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), according to Paraguay’s top diplomat.
A new legal analysis shows that the EU-Mercosur would not comply with existing EU and international law, because it is expected to lead to an overall rise in greenhouse gas emissions and increased deforestation.
It is highly unlikely that the hotly-contested EU-Mercosur free trade agreement will be concluded before the EU elections in June, French and German MPs familiar with the matter said.
Spain will present a proposal to strengthen mirror clauses in free trade agreements, such as the EU-Mercosur deal.
The Commission assessment is that the conditions for the conclusion of the Mercosur agreement are not met but negotiations on the deal are continuing.
The deal has been in negotiations for two decades, and supporters had hoped the agreement with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay could be concluded after new environmental protections were sought.
Hundreds of farmers from European Coordination Via Campesina have assembled with their tractors in Place du Luxembourg, Brussels, alongside more than 30 civil society organisations to call for an end to the EU-Mercosur deal and other free trade agreements.
Friends of the Earth Europe, Eurogroup for Animals and the European Trade Justice Coalition (ETJC) share European farmers’ frustration over having to compete with imported products exempt from the EU environmental, labour and animal welfare standards.
