Italy wants changes to EU-Mercosur trade deal’s agriculture sections, minister says

Brussels | Reuters — Italy wants changes to agricultural sections of the draft EU-Mercosur trade deal with South American countries, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Wednesday.

The draft trade agreement, which dates from 2019, aims to establish import quotas into the EU for certain agricultural products from Mercosur countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, with no duties or reduced import duties.

But EU farmers, especially French farmers, have protested against the deal, which they say will add to problems they already face from cheap imports, burdensome regulations and squeezed incomes.

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“We are in favour of the deal with Mercosur, but we need to correct some points on agricultural issues,” Tajani was quoted as saying by Italian news agency ANSA on the sidelines of a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels.

“We are working to try to achieve this objective because as far as industrial policy is concerned, we are going in the right direction.”

Italy’s Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida said last month that the draft was “not acceptable” and called for the Mercosur countries to comply with the same EU regulations in terms of respect for workers’ rights and the environment.

The Mercosur trade deal is supported by most of the South American countries and is being pushed by Germany and Spain.

South America’s Mercosur bloc will meet in Uruguay on Thursday raising the prospect that it could use the event to clinch the long-delayed EU trade deal, after last-minute negotiations to get it over the line.

— Reporting by Giselda Vagnoni