Brazil’s Lula and Germany’s Scholz push for swift EU-Mercosur trade deal

Brazil’s president Lula Da Silva and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met for talks over the long-stalled trade deal between the European Union and the South American confederation Mercosur. Mercosur consists of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Venezuela is currently suspended. Both leaders pledged to work towards the agreement being finished in the coming months. But not everybody is thrilled about that. The Mercosur deal would create a market with more than 700 million people, accounting for almost 20 percent of the global economy. It would be the largest free trade zone in the world. The Mercosur countries and the EU reached a comprehensive association agreement in 2019 – after 20 years of negotiations. But the agreement hasn’t been ratified yet. There had been concerns over Brazil’s former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, who ruthlessly promoted the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.