Paraguayan President Santiago Peña told Euronews that a free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur countries should be implemented without delay. He warned that delaying a deal would be a “mistake” amid rising geopolitical tensions.
The free trade agreement was signed last month by the EU and Mercosur members Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. However, full ratification by the EU was frozen after MEPs referred the agreement to Luxembourg’s Court of Justice.
“We already submitted the agreement to the Paraguayan National Assembly last week and we understand that the European Union has legal means to temporarily implement the agreement,” Peña told Euronews’ featured interview program. European conversation.
“We are working to make this a reality, and we hope that Paraguay will be the first country to do this.” The country currently has Mercosur as its rotating interim president.
Notwithstanding the judicial review, the European Commission has the privilege of applying the Agreement provisionally once one or more Mercosur countries have completed its domestic ratification. Germany, Spain, Portugal and the Nordic countries are in the process of moving to the next stage, but the European Commission says no decisions have been taken yet.
“Opposition rooted in ignorance”
The deal would create a vast EU-Latin America free trade area and lower tariffs on goods and services. But European resistance remains fierce, with farmers and some capitals, especially Paris, warning of unfair competition from Mercosur imports.
Peña said European opposition to the deal was rooted in “ignorance” and outdated and stereotyped views about Latin America.
“Our country has changed a lot. We have developed. Our human capital has grown,” Peña said. “Europe needs to rediscover Latin America.”
Peña warned in the interview that rejecting the deal would amount to a strategic failure because President Donald Trump’s unpredictable policies mean Europe can no longer rely on the United States as its default trading partner.
“It would definitely be a mistake if (MEPs) ultimately do not want to integrate into the (new) market and instead choose to maintain old alliances that are now defunct,” he said.
Still, Peña credited President Trump with giving the deal a “final push” after 25 years of negotiations.
“The world was in a state of drowsiness,” he said. “We didn’t move, and he came to move us all. He came to challenge what we thought was stable, and that pushed us to leave our comfort zone.”
Peña said one of the main benefits of the EU-Mercosur agreement is its potential to counter China’s growing presence and dominance of rare earth supplies in the region.
“Europe is missing out on a huge opportunity there, because if there’s any region in the world that can compete, it’s Latin America. We have young talent, we have a predominantly young population, and we have a population that is already digital natives,” he said.
“We have very rich natural resources, not only food that grows above ground, but also minerals underground, which are very important for this new wave of technology. Our region has everything that Europe and the world need.”
