Von der Leyen jets in to seal controversial Latin America trade deal
“The finish line of the EU-Mercosur agreement is in sight. Let’s work, let’s cross it,” says Ursula von der Leyen after arriving for Mercosur summit.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, flew in to Uruguay on Thursday to conclude negotiations on a controversial trade deal with Latin America.
“Touchdown in Latin America. The finish line of the EU-Mercosur agreement is in sight. Let’s work, let’s cross it,” von der Leyen said in a post on X.
“We have the chance to create a market of 700 million people. The largest trade and investment partnership the world has ever seen. Both regions will benefit.”
By sealing a deal at a summit of the Mersocur trade bloc — which comprises Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia — von der Leyen is overriding the furious objections of France.
There, the entire political class has voted to condemn the deal that has been a quarter century in the making. In the end, a political crisis that led to the collapse on Wednesday of Michel Barnier’s government — the shortest-lived in the history of the Fifth Republic — sapped Paris of the power to stop the deal.
Meanwhile, Berlin has intensified its lobbying with von der Leyen — who is herself German — to get the agreement done. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock met with the Commission chief to push for the deal to be signed this week.
The Franco-German clash over trade strategy could, if it escalates, cast into question the role of the EU executive as the lead negotiator in trade deals on behalf of the EU’s 27 member states, and the broader functioning of the bloc’s single market spanning 450 million people.
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