EU-Mercosur Trade Deal Talks Going Ahead Despite Amazon Fires - Spokesman
The European Union and the Mercosur club of Latin American economies are moving forward with ratifying their free trade deal despite the fires raging in Brazil's Amazon forests, the European Commission's spokesman, Enrico Brivio, said Wednesday
French President Emmanuel Macron has called to block the agreement, the largest free trade deal in the European Union's history, until Brazil does something about the rainforest fire.
"Both sides are now performing a legal revision of the agreed text to come up with a final version of the association agreement and all its trade aspects.
The Commission will then ... submit the association agreement to the EU member states and the European Parliament for approval. We do not speculate on the ratification process. The process is ongoing," Brivio told reporters.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been blamed for encouraging fires to free up the land for farming and mining. He has hit back at Macron accusing him of having colonial ambitions in the Brazilian region and demanded that the French president take back "insults" before he accepts G7 help in fighting the blaze.