After negotiations spanning over 20 years, the EU-Mercosur trade deal, which aims to create one of the largest free-trade zones in the world, has been finalized. While the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the achievement as a ‘win-win’ deal, opposition mounts from France. CGTN’s Will Denselow reports.
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00:00Historic is certainly the buzzword used by Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, describing it as historic as well.
00:09She said that this is a trade agreement that really runs counter to global trends we're seeing at the moment when it comes to isolation and fragmentation.
00:19When it comes to some of the nitty-gritty of this deal, Ursula von der Leyen and the European Commission claim it will essentially open markets to over 700 million people,
00:30bringing with it the prospect of more jobs, greater choices for consumers and more competitive pricing.
00:37As far as EU businesses are concerned, the Commission claims it will save these EU businesses roughly $4.2 billion per year
00:47when it comes to export duty, so certainly a number of benefits being touted by the European Commission, with Ursula von der Leyen simply describing it as a win-win.
01:01And there's been some pretty strong opposition, hasn't there, Will?
01:07That's absolutely right. Prominent critics include Ireland, Poland and perhaps most notably France, considering the fact that France is the EU's second largest economy.
01:20Where plenty of this criticism for this trade agreement come from, many citing environmental concerns as well as the impact this trade agreement could potentially have on domestic farmers.
01:33Ursula von der Leyen did address this in Montevideo, stating that she's heard these criticisms and that safeguards will be in place to protect European farmers going forward.
01:47But the real question is, will the European Commission be able to convince both the European Parliament as well as the EU's 27 member states to go forward and endorse this agreement?
01:59Their endorsement is still needed for this agreement to be ratified. That's been echoed by the European Commission that says that this announcement in Uruguay today is just the first step in what could be a long process to reaching a final conclusion of this arrangement.