Trade: Mercosur deal discussed with Czech Permanent Representation
The informal coalition of European industry associations – of which CECE is a member – supporting the Mercosur agreement met yesterday with officials of the Czech government. With the Czech Republic due to take the rotating EU Council Presidency in July, the goal of the meeting was to understand the priority of the upcoming Presidency towards a quick ratification and implementation of the Association Agreement between the EU and the Mercosur bloc.
A trade policy representative of the Czech Permanent Representation to the EU stated their willingness to revive high-level political discussions to ratify the Agreement. The importance of such an agreement is reinforced by the current geopolitical conditions, the continued supply-chain concerns and the ongoing decoupling between the EU and other regions of the world. For these reasons, indeed, it is becoming clearer that the opening up of new markets and new trading opportunities will be of vital importance for export-oriented industrial sectors in Europe, such as CECE.
On the other hand, the current political context makes it challenging to ratify a comprehensive Association Agreement for the certain Member States. From this comes the idea to break down the Agreement into smaller and more modest dimensions, but details and acceptance remain to be seen.
As stated in a 2021 joint statement, the coalition, of which CECE is a signatory, keeps supporting the mutual opening up of economic blocs as a great way to reinforce growth and prosperity for both.
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