Trade talks between the EU and the Mercosur group, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, have intensified in recent months, with Brussels calling the agreement’s speedy ratification a “number one priority”. Talks on the deal have been overshadowed by thousands of fires burning at record levels in the Brazilian Amazon, attributed by experts to deforestation.
The mass wildfires raging in Brazil’s Amazon split European nations on Saturday, with political leaders at the G7 summit, underway in Biarritz, southern France, locking horns over the future of a trade deal with Brazil and other South American nations, reported DW.
Having taken 20 years to iron out, the deal is set to potentially create the largest free trade area in the world.
Experts have been attributing the blazes to deliberate deforestation caused by the clearing of land during dry summer months for crops and grazing.