While focused on negotiations on a new kind of bilateral trade agreement with Donald Trump – which, according to the Argentine ambassador to the US, Alec Oxenford, “still has to be put on top” – Javier Miley’s government is treading cautiously and without surprise at new threats from France. It will not sign the finalized free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union.
Last week, new Foreign Minister Pablo Cuerno – who will travel to Washington on Tuesday – said that among his priorities was signing a free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union.
“We want to support our farmers, and that is why France will not sign an agreement that would condemn them in the long term,” he added. Annie Genevard, Emmanuel Macron’s agriculture minister, was fired this weekend, underscoring some of her government’s supposed “red lines”, even though the French president said the previous week that he viewed positively the closing of the 27-member EU agreement with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia still needing some adjustments to become a full member.
Despite Guinevere closing the door, there are other developments on the part of France – which is not the only European, although it is the most reluctant to sign an agreement that reshapes relations between the two blocs – important developments have occurred in recent days, in consultations with this newspaper. The Argentine government downplayed the threats.
“Putting a bow” on the agreement between Europe and Latin America is not easy, but on Thursday, EU member states held a meeting in which they gave the initial green light to a series of guarantees to protect European farmers when the agreement enters into force.
According to what was discussed between Brussels and Brazil, which holds the interim presidency of Mercosur, after the Uruguay meeting in December 2024 – which Miley attended – the work accomplished during these months will allow the signing of an agreement at the next Mercosur summit in Brazil, which could be held on December 20, whose host will be Lula da Silva and which the Argentine president will have to attend.
The European Commission has already published Final text of the free trade agreement With Mercosur it now needs the approval of a majority of its 27 member states. And on the Argentine side, this is the text they had at the time It was negotiated by former Foreign Minister Diana Mondino and her former Secretary for International Trade Relations Marcelo Sima. Who were in the initial and substantive negotiations that Lula da Silva is now negotiating.
At the same time, Miley made a 180-degree turn on this issue. In this regard, Miley not only issued the order to move forward with her partners in the bloc to confront the openness that Argentina itself was demanding, but also Stop prioritizing a free trade agreement with the United States that would not have this form and that would also force it to leave Mercosur, and It seeks to address a serious deficiency: an EU embassy without a head and neglected for a year and a half.
So, as expected Clarín, Javier Miley’s administration has asked the European Union to approve the appointment of Fernando Iglesias as ambassador there. Saqr al-Buru, the official ally, ends his term as deputy at the end of December, and requested to be sent to Brussels months ago.
According to the agency BloombergThese measures would protect the agricultural sector and food producers from low price competition or a sudden increase in imports from new trading partners, such as Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia. The European Commission, the executive arm of the G27, has proposed these proposals Protection measures to calm France and other countries that fear the agreement will affect their farmers.
They continue to demand the same thing. At the weekend, French producers returned with their tractors to make their usual protests against the agreement, this time arriving at the gates of the Palace of Versailles.
Farmers, who say they have already been affected by Donald Trump’s high tariffs, say… “Cheap imports” also affect them and this will get worse with the agreement with Mercosur. They then demand guarantees that their Latin American competitors adhere to EU health and environmental standards, including those on antibiotics and pesticides.
according to BloombergFrench producers of meat, poultry, beets, sugar, bioethanol and grains jointly announced that Paris should refuse to sign the agreement and form an alliance with other EU countries to prevent its ratification. And here came Minister Genevard, who nonetheless celebrated the inclusion of guarantee clauses in the final text of the agreement.
But for the producers who have set up about two dozen tractors in front of Versailles, they are just a “smoke screen,” and they believe this will not protect them from the raw materials produced by Mercosur.
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