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TOWARD AN ERA OF MACRO INTERREGIONAL PREFERENTIAL
TRADE AGREEMENTS?
The options for Mercosur-EU negotiations in the new international context |
by Félix Peña
February 2013
English translation: Isabel Romero Carranza
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The announcement by President Obama on the negotiation
of a "Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership" with the
EU opens a new international framework in which to analyze the future
of Mercosur-EU relations. Such announcement is accompanied by the fact
that, in his address to Congress, the US President also mentioned the
"Trans-Pacific Partnership" but said nothing regarding the conclusion
of the Doha Round.
In this context and in light of the results of the
recent CELAC-EU Summit in Santiago de Chile, it would be fitting to place
a vision of the options open for the negotiations between Mercosur countries
and the EU with the aim of establishing a bi-regional association. In
fact the bi-regional Ministerial Meeting on occasion of the abovementioned
Summit seems to have generated a kind of parenthesis of nine months, if
one takes into account what was agreed in the joint statement and in the
declarations made by some of the main protagonists and, in particular,
,by the Presidents of Argentina and Brazil.
The signs of life revealed do not exclude the questions
posed by the future of these negotiations. At times they lead to options
reflected by proposals aimed at materializing some form of agreement of
bilateral scope, for example between the EU and individual countries of
Mercosur. It has even been suggested that it could be in the framework
of a multi speed bi-regional agreement.
Each of the countries that today form Mercosur should take advantage of
the parenthesis mentioned before so that all the sectors involved can
review the imaginable options to address the relationship with the EU,
whether in the context of a bi-regional agreement or under other form
that is acceptable for all stakeholders. However it would not seem to
be a realistic option to fragment, through bilateral agreements, the relation
of the EU with each one of the Mercosur member countries.
Perhaps the business sector, first within each country
and then with the other Mercosur members and at a bi-regional level with
the European counterparts, could have more possibilities of undertaking
this examination. The Mercosur EU Business Forum still exists. It could
be the milieu where to advance collective reflection and propose realistic
ideas, even with the participation of other sectors and using a "multi-stakeholder"
methodology, the most appropriate to ensure effective economic diplomacy.
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In his address to Congress on the State of the Union, President Barak
Obama announced the start of talks between the US and the EU with the
aim of agreeing a comprehensive "Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership" - TTP). In making his announcement, the U.S. President
also referred to another pillar of its foreign trade strategy which is
the "Trans-Pacific Partnership" - TATIP). At no time did he
refer to the need to conclude the Doha Round within the scope of the WTO
(see the speech of President Barak Obama, delivered on February 12, 2013
at http://www.whitehouse.gov/;
see the US-EU joint statement issued on February 13 at http://www.ustr.gov/
and at http://europa.eu/,
which also published the "Final Report - High Level Working Group
on Jobs and Growth", of February 11, 2013).
After the experience with the hemispheric FTAA negotiations, it seems
premature to venture a more serious prediction about the possibility that
the two abovementioned initiatives can be realized at the time announced
or estimated (the TPP in October of this year and the TATIP within two
years). But given the fact that it is hard to imagine that the Doha Round
can be concluded within a reasonable time, it would seem advisable to
work under the assumption that we are entering an era of macro interregional
preferential trade agreements that could have clear geopolitical connotations.
This is a stage where on the one hand there are weak multilateral disciplines
and at the same time large "private clubs" of a discriminatory
trade character towards the non-participating countries, not so much by
means of tariffs but through other measures affecting trade flows and
investments, especially those resulting from the various regulatory frameworks.
At a recent conference in Delhi the Director General of the WTO, Pascal
Lamy, referred to the return of geopolitics at the table of international
trade (see the recommended reading section of this newsletter). His words
lead to install a necessary reflection on the geopolitical effects of
a possible scenario in which a multiplicity of different forms of bilateral
trade agreements, regional and inter-regional, co-exist with a less than
effective multilateral framework.
Following the recent CELAC-EU Summit, held in Santiago de Chile on 26
and 27 January, it can be argued that Latin American countries and the
current EU remain committed to building a space for interregional cooperation.
Without prejudice to other relevant European players, the presence of
Chancellor Angela Merkel symbolized the relative importance that European
countries assign to their relation with Latin America.
A vision on the future of negotiations between Mercosur countries and
the EU, with the aim of concluding a bi-regional association agreement
should be placed in such framework. This initiative gained momentum at
the beginning of the nineties. Spain and Portugal played an important
role. In fact some of the main drivers were officials in Brussels of Iberian
origin. But it was also influenced by the fact that the US had launched
its Enterprise for the Americas Initiative, which opened the way for the
then frustrated negotiations of the so called FTAA negotiations. In Europe
this was interpreted as a clear signal that the US sought preferential
access to the Latin American markets and, in particular, to South American
ones. This coincided with the initiative of Argentina and Brazil to create
Mercosur, originally conceived as a much more ambitious project than the
bilateral one launched by Presidents Alfonsin and Sarney midway through
the eighties.
For various reasons, many of them with deep roots, European countries
attributed a special nature to their relation with the sub-regional space
called Mercosur, as if it were the core of the strategic bi-regional EU-Latin
American relation. Cultural affinities, nourished by the strong presence
of migrants from Europe as well as economic ones, reflected by a meaningful
stock of direct investments, especially in various industrial sectors,
among which the automotive stands out, and significant bi-regional trade
are some of the reasons that were taken into account. Plus the idea of
being able to counterbalance the presence of American companies if these
obtained preferential access to South American markets.
But another strong motive of geopolitical scope had to do with the idea
of a "European style" integration of a sub-regional geographic
space in South America, as an important condition for global governance.
In this perspective the EU would have in Mercosur a sort of "twin
brother" or, at least, an "akin little brother". It heralded
a world in which global governance could be based in a dense network of
regions organized through multiple integration agreements within the framework
of the WTO.
The years passed. The dreams were diluted. The negotiations for a bi-regional
association agreement Mercosur-EU lost their dynamism. At times they stagnated.
And one of the factors that drove the initial momentum disappeared after
the explicit shipwreck of the FTAA in the Summit of the Americas in Mar
del Plata (2005). At the same time the fact that the Doha Round also entered
into a state of starvation contributed to cool down the negotiating mood
on both sides of the Atlantic. We should keep in mind that the WTO negotiations
were perceived as the ambit that would eventually help unleash one of
the most complex knots in the bi-regional Mercosur-EU relations, which
is agriculture, especially for the distorting effects that are rightly
attributed to the Community's agricultural policy. In turn, in European
eyes Mercosur was losing credibility and therefore attractiveness. Today,
the changes in the global economic environment find both protagonists
of this relationship going through their own identity crises.
In Santiago de Chile, once again, Mercosur and the EU reaffirmed their
political will to conclude a bi-regional association (see the final communiqué
of the bi-regional Ministerial Meeting on January 27, 2013, at http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/sala-de-imprensa/notas-a-imprensa/reuniao-ministerial-mercosul-uniao-europeia.-santiago-do-chile-26-de-janeiro-de-2013.-comunicado-conjunto).
This is not the first time they do it. They did it before on the occasion
of the Madrid Summit in 2010. They have been negotiating for thirteen
years. Now they have agreed that in the last quarter of this year "at
the latest" they will make the delayed exchange of offers. They seem
to still maintain the idea that such offers should lead to the release
of substantially all the trade, conceived from a dogmatic interpretation
but without a solid legal foundation in GATT-WTO rules, and according
to which coverage of at least 90% of the bi-regional trade should be ensured.
The signs of life manifested in Santiago do not exclude the strong questioning
posed by the future of these negotiations. At times they lead to options
that are reflected in proposals aimed at materializing some form of agreement
of bi-lateral scope, for example, between the EU and individual Mercosur
countries. It has even been suggested that it could be within the framework
of a multi speed bi-regional agreement. Such proposals are usually made
manifest in business sectors, especially of Brazil. Sometimes they come
from the European side. They were even reflected in the press on the occasion
of the 6th EU-Brazil Business Encounter held at the National Confederation
of Industries on 23 January. For example, the president of the Brazilian
Poultry Union defended the idea of a progressive agreement between Mercosur
and the EU in case that not all partners were in a position to take part
of it now (reflected in statements in the newspaper Valor Econômico
of January 24, 2013). An editorial in the newspaper Valor Econômico
from 30 January clearly concludes this. Among others one of the reasons
is the fact that next year Brazil will be excluded from the Generalized
System of Preferences of the EU. The announcement of a possible free trade
agreement between the US and the EU can generate more incentives to advance
these proposals.
The choice of a scenario of different modalities of bilateral agreements
between countries of Mercosur and a third country or group of countries
would confront a legal obstacle in Decision 32/00 of the Council of Mercosur,
which requires member countries to negotiate jointly with third countries.
It is an argument that was put forward especially on the Brazilian side
when the then government of Uruguay attempted to initiate bilateral negotiations
with the US.
However it is a limited obstacle because the rule refers to "agreements
of a commercial nature
in which tariff preferences are granted".
Besides that this could eventually be contoured if the option of a multi
speed bi-regional agreement is used, it is a known fact that the essence
of contemporary preferential trade negotiations does not necessarily involve
tariff preferences. Regulatory frameworks, access to public procurement,
investments, services, intellectual property, among others, are the strongest
components and also the most controversial of the respective international
trade negotiating agendas. As noted above it is revealed, for example,
by the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and will also be the case
of the free trade negotiations between the US and the EU. In this sense,
if tariff preferences are not included, the above mentioned Mercosur rule
would not mean an insurmountable obstacle for a scenario of future bilateral
agreements between member countries and the EU -especially if diplomatic
elegance is used-. Nor, indeed, would be the case with countries such
as the US and China, without prejudice to others.
However the above scenario also has sensitive political edges. It would
weaken to a dangerous extent the distinction between "us and them"
that since the Alfonsin-Sarney agreements has been a central feature of
the strategic relation between Argentina and Brazil, with all the unfoldings
that it has had since its origins and that still has today. These certainly
transcend the political and economic. They contribute to something that
is of great value for each one of the two countries and that can be called
the "quality of the neighborhood" in terms of peace, democracy,
political stability and social and economic development of all South America.
This includes most notably the existing bilateral agreements in the nuclear
field that are undoubtedly an example of understanding in a more than
sensitive issue that transcends the region.
In fact the bi-regional meeting of Santiago seems to have opened a period
of reflection on the future of the negotiations -a kind of parenthesis
of about nine months- if we take into account what was agreed according
to the joint statement and the declarations made by some of the major
players and, in particular, the Presidents of Argentina and Brazil.
This interval could be used to rethink many aspects of the negotiating
strategy, even what kind of agreement is intended. Much water has flowed
under the bridge since the first years of the nineties when the idea that
led to this bi-regional negotiation began to take shape. The world, each
of the two regions and relative economic asymmetries were very different.
Today there are many more relevant players in global economic competition.
The shifts in relative economic power have been strong and it appears
that they will continue in the future. The WTO multilateral framework
shows marked signs of weakness that might be accentuated by the proliferation
of preferential trade agreements involving large economic areas. All countries
have multiple options for their insertion in world trade. For Mercosur
countries, even in their South American dimension, the EU has been and
still is important. But certainly it is not the only option for the negotiating
agenda of Mercosur and its member countries.
In each of the Mercosur countries all the sectors involved -government,
business, labor, academic- should take advantage of this parenthesis to
jointly examine the advantages and disadvantages of the options that can
be realistically imagined to address the necessary relation with the EU,
whether in the context of a bi-regional agreement as the one that has
been sought in recent years, or through other modalities that may arise
and that are acceptable to the partners. However, it does not seem to
be a realistic option to fragment, through bilateral agreements, the preferential
relationship of the EU with each of the Mercosur countries as has been
suggested on several occasions.
The time available is not much as a similar exercise should necessarily
be carried out among all Mercosur members. Perhaps the business sector,
first at country level then at a regional level with Mercosur countries
and later at a bi-regional level with the European counterparts, may have
more interest and possibilities of reviewing the options as was previously
suggested. The Mercosur-EU Business Forum (MEBF) still exists. It could
be a milieu where to advance collective reflection and make realistic
proposals that are acceptable to all, even with the participation of other
sectors, that is, with a "multi-stakeholder" methodology which
is the most appropriate to ensure effective economic diplomacy.
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Félix Peña Director
of the Institute of International Trade at the ICBC Foundation. Director
of the Masters Degree in International Trade Relations at Tres de Febrero
National University (UNTREF). Member of the Executive Committee of the
Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI). Member of the Evian
Group Brains Trust. More
information.
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