Spain's Sanchez Hopes to See EU-Mercosur Trade Deal Sealed by End of 2023

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th July, 2023) Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose country will chair the EU presidency for the next six months, expressed hope on Monday that the trade deal between Brussels and South American trade bloc Mercosur would come through by the end of 2023.

"After more than 20 years of negotiations, we believe that we now have a window of opportunity to ratify it in the second half of 2023," Sanchez said at the opening of a business round table between the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

The panel meeting in Brussels took place ahead of the EU-CELAC summit. It was attended by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Sanchez told the gathering of European and South American investors that Spain saw a trade pact between the two regions as very important. He said they complemented each other, with the EU offering capital, technology and know-how in return for Mercosur's "energy, abundant raw materials, sun, fertile soil, water."