7 October, 2013
As part of its efforts to increase trade with South America, the EU is focusing on strengthening its economic cooperation with Brazil, the region’s largest economy. "We want to increase the number of European companiesworking here because for us internationalisation is crucial", said EU Commissioner Vice President for Industry and Entrepreneurship Antonio Tajani, who leads a joint committee with Brazil on investment and competitiveness.
Accompanied by a group of European ambassadors and business leaders, Tajani recently met with top officials at the National Confederation of Industries in Brasilia to discuss policy matters. The participants plan to reconvene in November, and present the conclusions from both meetings at a summit of top Brazilian and EU government officials. The EU-Brazil summit is set to take place in Brussels early next year, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Brazil and its partners in the Mercosur customs union, including Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, have been struggling to come to an agreement on a free trade proposal with the EU, scheduled for presentation by the year’s end. Historically the EU’s trade talks with Mercosur, which is known to have internal problems, have been unproductive; thus it has opted of late to work more directly with Brazil, its largest trading partner in the region.
One of the issues at hand is more open trade and investment between the two regions, which the EU has been pushing for. While Brazil has pledged to try to negotiate up to 90% of its trade volume with the EU, other Mercosur partners such as Argentina and Venezuela are resistant to opening up more trade overseas.
The growth of the Brazilian economy has slowed, and Europe’s recovery has been frustratingly slow; yet Tajani sees a "promise of great things for European investors and also for Brazilian companies working in Europe". He believes that with increased cooperation, both Brazil and the EU could increase opportunities in a variety of industrial sectors including aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, biotech, agro-industry and alternative energy.