A top official in the European Union says she hopes the Biregional Association Agreement between the EU and Mercosur will be ready in time for the 4th EU-Latin American-Caribbean Summit which is scheduled to take place in May 2006 in Vienna.
The EU commissioner for Foreign Relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, says she will push for negotiations with the goal of reaching an agreement in time for the Vienna conference.
Ferrero-Waldner says an important step will be a ministerial meeting in Geneva on September 2. Last year the two sides actually made offers but they were considered inadequate.
“We have been negotiating for a long time. Now we are in the final stretch and that is where all kinds of problems pop up,” she said, adding that most of them were in agriculture, investments, government procurement and autos. She called on the business community to get behind the agreement.
On a visit to Latin America, Ferrero-Waldner stopped first in Brazil which she called a “global player.” She went on to say that “Brazil is an emerging global power. We hope Brazil will play the role of leader in trade.”
ABr