By Lewis Crofts - 21st April 2004
The Latin American trading bloc Mercosur and the EU have finally tabled opening offers on a trade deal, but have opted to keep talks 'informal' for the time being.
Both sides were meant to table concrete proposals for opening up their domestic markets with a view to agreeing on a trade zone by October.
But after continual delays, they decided this week against submitting 'formal offers' following pressure over trade in agricultural produce.
"There was an informal exchange of offers," a Brazilian trade official confirmed on Thursday.
"There is a first draft of offers and those offers are being analysed," he continued.
An Argentine official added that the delays were "normal" and that "formal" offers should be exchanged in the "near future" - perhaps in ten days or so.
Some press reports are seeing the reluctance to submit "formal" offers as a cooling in trade relations following claims the EU was trying to 'buy-off' opposition to its maligned agricultural policy.
Brussels sent high-level negotiatiors to Buenos Aires last week to try and force "maximum ambition" from Mercosur, but it seems not to have yielded the all important "formal offers" needed to kickstart haggling in earnest.
An EU spokesman sought to play down the delays, saying that negotiations were "still on schedule" and "nothing went wrong" in Buenos Aires.
"We have agreed to exchange offers in April," he said.
"And April has not yet finished," he pointed out.
Brussels has been in talks will Mercosur – which comprises Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay – for several years and had hoped to see a deal reached by October.
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