Spotlight falls on ties with Latin America

Date: 17/02/2000

By Gareth Harding

Latin America has never been very high up the EU's foreign policy agenda, but in the last year it has at least gained a handful of entries in the Union's busy diary.

The first-ever summit between the two continent's leader's was held in Rio de Janeiro last June, talks aimed at creating a free-trade area with the Mercosur group of countries kicked off in the autumn, and an ambitious duty-free deal with Mexico was clinched in November after only 12 months of negotiations.

EU foreign ministers will be hoping to build on this momentum at a series of meetings with their Latin American counterparts in Villamoura, Portugal, which begin on Monday (21 February). During three hectic days, they will hold talks with all the major groupings of countries to the south of the Rio Grande. These include the Andean states in the north of the continent, the Mercosur exporting giants in the south and the San José cluster of countries on the central American isthmus.

The Portuguese presidency will also host the first meeting of Latin American states since the Rio get-together. Officials say they do not expect the meeting to produce any startling new initiatives, but point out that "it is important to make sure that all the grand declarations we signed up to in Rio are not all rhetoric".

Of more interest to those following the free-trade debate will be the talks between the EU and Mexico.

The European Commission clinched an agreement with Mexico last November which aims to fully liberalise the exchange of industrial goods by 2007 and agricultural products by 2010. However, the accord has yet to be ratified by the European Parliament, Belgium, Italy, Denmark and Luxembourg, and cannot be approved by the Mexican senate until it reconvenes in early March.

Following the first in-depth discussion of the deal by Union foreign ministers earlier this week, the only potential hurdle to ratification appears to be Italy.

Rome is concerned about the size of the planned duty-free quota for concentrated fruit juices and has voiced concerns about the rules of origin for exports of textiles and shoes from Mexico.

This may appear to be only a minor problem, but given the current furious arguments over a similar free-trade pact with South Africa, both sides are cautious about sounding too upbeat. Nevertheless, EU leaders still hope to sign the agreement formally on the sidelines of their special summit in Lisbon on 23-24 March.

Mexican officials are anxious to iron out any potential problems at an early stage. To this end, Mexican Foreign Minister Rosario Green and Trade Minister Herminio Blanco toured Europe's capitals earlier this month to drum up support for the accord.

Preview of EU meetings with the Andean states, Mercosur and the San José group, 21-23.2.00.