LatinNews Daily - 21 November 2023

* Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signalled an increased urgency to ratify the free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. On 20 November Lula had a phone call with Ursula Von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch. Both have previously stressed the need to close the deal by year end. The deadline is expected to be 6 December, the day before Paraguay assumes Mercosur’s six-month rotating presidency from Brazil. In September, Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña reportedly affirmed that, during his Mercosur presidency, the bloc would give up on the EU negotiations; instead pursuing trade with other partners, such as member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). Further threats to Mercosur are likely to arise after the inauguration of Argentina’s far-right president-elect Javier Milei on 10 December. On the campaign trail he had suggested withdrawing Argentina from the bloc. Lula and Von der Leyen have agreed to meet again in the United Arab Emirates at the United Nations climate change conference (COP28), which will begin on 30 November.