The Mercosur regional trade bloc and Canada will restart negotiations on a free-trade agreement, Brazil confirmed on Monday, as tensions rise over US tariffs that have rattled global commerce.
Brasília, which holds Mercosur’s rotating presidency, announced that chief negotiators from Canada and the bloc – made up of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay – will meet in October to relaunch stalled talks.
The two sides issued a joint statement calling the move “a timely step towards greater economic diversification.”
“The resumption of trade negotiations between Mercosur and Canada is a clear sign of our shared commitment to deepening mutually beneficial economic ties and opening up new and relevant opportunities,” Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Talks collapsed in 2019 after the seventh round of negotiations. Now, both sides are pressing to revive dialogue amid US President Donald Trump’s tariff-driven trade war. Earlier this month, Washington slapped 50 percent duties on Brazilian goods, despite its trade surplus with Latin America’s largest economy. Brazil plans to challenge the surcharges at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has vowed to expand trade partnerships beyond the United States, opening new markets for Brazilian exports. Canada and Brazil, meanwhile, stressed their “historic commitment to open, fair and sustainable trade” and pledged to pursue joint strategies “to promote bilateral and regional prosperity within the global trading system.”
Delegations will meet in Toronto in September to explore fresh opportunities for trade and investment.
In Brazil’s case, the dispute with Washington is further entangled with domestic politics: the US tariffs are partly linked to the coup trial facing former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. Trump has branded the proceedings a “witch hunt” by Brazil’s Supreme Court.
– TIMES/AFP
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