French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that his government’s ability to support the EU-Mercosur trade deal depends on President-elect Jair Bolsonaro’s position on the Climate Agreement of Paris, informs the “Agência Brasil”.
“We can not ask French farmers and workers to change their production habits to lead the green transition and to sign trade agreements with countries that do not do the same. We want balanced agreements,” Macron said, without citing directly the statements against the Paris Agreement made by Bolsonaro.
Macron made the remarks at a joint press conference with Argentina’s president Mauricio Macri, which met two days before the G20 leaders’ summit, a group formed by the world’s largest economies.
The EU and Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, since Venezuela is temporarily suspended) negotiate the agreement based on three pillars – political dialogue, cooperation and free trade – for nearly 20 years.
Without doubts he expressed regarding the future Brazilian government, Macron said he intends to advance in relations with Argentina and praised Macri for following a “clear course”. In addition, he stressed that France supported Casa Rosada’s $ 57 billion loan request from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) following a severe currency crisis.
Macron also said he plans to create a bilateral economic forum between France and Argentina so that mid-sized companies in both countries will make more cross-investment in sectors such as innovation and tourism.
On the G20 summit, Macron said he hoped the spirit of “dialogue and cooperation” would succeed in the meeting. The French president also said he has an “easy and fluent” relationship with US President Donald Trump on issues such as security and the fight against terrorism, but admitted that there are “disagreements” in the discussions on trade and climate.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.