By Lucila Sigal
BUENOS AIRES, July 1 (Reuters) - Germany's foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, said on Wednesday there were still "issues" to resolve before the European Union's trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc can be ratified, though he said he was confident they could be overcome.
Wadephul's comments came a day after a Mercosur summit in Paraguay, where member countries discussed the distribution of export quotas under their recently agreed deal with the EU. The German official attended as part
of a multi-day tour of South America.
Mercosur, made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, signed the trade agreement with the EU in January after 25 years of negotiations. It entered provisional force four months later.
"Implementation will still take some time. There will surely be some problems, but they are problems that can be resolved," Wadephul said at a press conference in Buenos Aires.
"The decisive steps have already been taken. We want this agreement, and we will be able to resolve the problems that arise," he added, without giving details on the remaining obstacles.
Public disputes around the accord have centered on protections for EU farmers, opposition from some member states, legal questions over ratification and provisional application, environmental concerns including deforestation, and, on the Mercosur side, the unresolved quota allocation.
The EU-Mercosur agreement creates a free trade area that includes the reduction and gradual elimination of tariffs, with immediate benefits for a broad range of products and phased tariff cuts for others.
Trade between the two blocs, covering a market of 700 million people, reached 111 billion euros ($130.8 billion) in 2024.
During the meeting, Wadephul and Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno also announced a memorandum of understanding on critical minerals aimed at expanding supply chains, amid growing demand for minerals such as lithium and copper driven by the energy transition.
(Reporting by Lucila Sigal; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
