Europe making headway in trade talks with Brazil
(BRASILIA) - The European Union said Friday it was making progress in trade talks with Brazil, while its negotiations with the Mercosur trading bloc were going nowhere.
"We have to talk with Brazil, which is a very important, growing country which speaks a European language and with which it is easy to work," said Antonio Tajani, the European commissioner for industry and entrepreneurship.
Tajani was in Brasilia for talks ahead of an EU-Brazil summit in Brussels that President Dilma Rousseff is due to attend in February.
He pointed to "internal problems" with Mercosur, which groups Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
EU officials meanwhile noted that more than 15 years of trade talks with Mercosur have failed to yield results.
The negotiations over a free trade agreement have stumbled so far over differences on agriculture -- notably Europe's subsidies to its farmers, which undermine South America's efforts to sell its own products.
"Many European firms work in Brazil," Tajani told a press conference.
"That is why Brazil is important. Not only for trade but also for industry, tourism, small and medium enterprises."
These companies include Italy's Fiat, Spain's Telefonica and Germany's Volkswagen.
Brazil is the fifth biggest investor in Europe.
Tajani held a series of meetings with local officials in Brasilia, with the EU seeking to boost trade and investment.
He said an EU official was due in Brazil shortly to mull prospects in the railway, civil construction and automobile sectors.
Also to be discussed were prospects for joint EU-Brazil investments in Africa.
According to Development Ministry data the European Union was the third biggest importer of Brazilian goods for the first half of this year, taking in 19 percent of the country's total exports for a value of $21.7 billion.
The EU is also Brazil's second supplier, accounting for 21.3 percent of the Latin American giant's imports valued at $25 billion.