Brasília - The National Agricultural Confederation (CNA) has released a note lamenting the temporary termination of the Mercosur/European Union biregional negotiations last week. CNA vice president for International Affairs, Gilman Viana Rodrigues, said the impasse will make it hard to keep to the original timetable which called for an agreement by October.

"Mercosur has lost an opportunity to increase its farm sector exports by US$2 billion annually, besides creating 720,000 jobs," said Rodrigues. A new round of negotiations is scheduled for September.

In its note, the CNA points out that a Mercosur-EU agreement would create the second biggest economic block in the world, with 700 million consumers.

The CNA also deplores that fact that methodology problems have hindered progress, resulting in the suspension of the last two meetings of the coordinators. The CNA calls for a stronger commitment by the negotiators and more coordination intra-Mercosur, similar to the successful setup at recent multilateral negotiations at the World Trade Organization.

Agência Brasil
Translator: Allen Bennett
08/16/2004