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Brazil president wants to speed up negotiations between Mercosur, EU

Xinhua, September 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

Brazilian President Michel Temer said on Wednesday that he intended to accelerate negotiations between the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and the European Union (EU) for a bilateral agreement.

"Now, we want to speed up negotiations, for example, between Mercosur and the European Union, and also further conversations with other partners," Temer said during a meeting at the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce.

Negotiations between Mercosur and the EU began in 2000. However, after an unsuccessful exchange of market offers in 2004, talks were stalled until 2010.

In May, representatives from the two blocs met in Brussels, Belgium, but no exchange agreement was reached, mainly due to differences over the agricultural sector.

The Brazilian government predict that negotiations for exchange deals between Mercosur and the EU will go on for another two years.

"The World Trade Organization (WTO), like we all know, is an important forum for combating agricultural subsidies. However, it is necessary to dedicate more efforts to agreements with selected partners. We need to break relativism and the external isolation of the past years," said Temer.

"We need an agile and modern Mercosur that serves as a platform so that we can act strengthened in the international market. This calls for the need to face many issues such as revising the bloc's tariff structure and conclusion of agreements in new areas," said the president.

Mercosur groups Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. Endi