Spain will try to persuade reluctant EU partners to approve Mercosur deal

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday said some European Union partners were reluctant to approve a trade agreement with South American bloc Mercosur, but he would try to persuade them to greenlight the deal.
The bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay Brazil is discussing concluding the agreement with the European Union after a political deal hammered out in 2019 was put on hold due to concerns, particularly in France, about Amazon deforestation and Brazil’s commitment to climate change action.
Sanchez told a joint news conference with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, “There are indeed countries within the EU that have doubts about the culmination of this important agreement, but I believe that these doubts should be dispelled if we think of all the potential in an agreement of this magnitude.”
Marcio Elias Rosa, a top secretary at Brazil’s development and industry ministry, said on Sunday that he expected the ongoing trade negotiations to conclude this year.