Now it could be as a group.Brazil has a little unlocked to a Mercosur (Southern Common Market) bloc negotiation for an open market contract (FTA) with China, and the sale of fuels could be among the main settlement points.During his visit to Montevideo on 25 January, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he was likewise going to talk with the Asian giant about an agreement for which Uruguay has actually been working out individually for a long time, and which has generated tensions with the other members of the bloc: Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.In an interview with Sputnik, the director of the Mercosur department of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, Francisco Cannabrava, verified that Uruguay is a tremendously important partner and suggested that eventual settlements as a bloc with Beijing might concentrate on energy issues. We require to analyze what contracts we might have with China.

I am telling you this on a really tentative basis.

China is a really crucial trading partner, however there are other sectors that we can work on, for example, the energy area.

China is a big demander of energy, he said.The authorities said Mercosur has great capacity for eco-friendly or low-carbon sources.

Argentina has gas; Brazil has ethanol ...

So we would have to somehow handle the energy concern.

We discover it fascinating to think of this.

Besides, there is the financial investment part; China is an excellent world investor , he added.Cannabrava repeated that these are provisionary concepts for future reflection .

It does not mean that we currently have a study or something very established.

We wish to move on with discussions, he explained.On January 25, Lula and his Uruguayan counterpart, Luis Lacalle Pou, discussed various elements and sought a rapprochement of Montevideos efforts for a private FTA with China.The Brazilian president was willing to talk about an arrangement as a bloc but stressed that it is necessary and urgent to close the FTA that Mercosur has actually been negotiating for more than 20 years with the European Union (EU).

URUGUAYCannabrava worried the value of Uruguay to Brazil and the entire South American bloc.

Uruguay is greatly crucial for us; it is among the founding partners of Mercosur, we have really crucial trade, we have financial investments ...

So for us, it is extremely essential that Uruguay works within the bloc collectively and makes choices, he said.He also said that Lula chose to make his very first official visit as president to Buenos Aires and Montevideo out of regard for Uruguay.

I think it is a message to help find ways to accomplish a mutual understanding with Uruguay and for him to work with us, he added.He also stated Brazil wants to show Uruguay that trade prior to the customizeds union was much lower.

Brazil has high financial investments in Uruguay to sell items within the Mercosur location.

We also wish to advance in the definition of other arrangements.

We know that the contract with the European Union is important for Uruguay, so the discussion in between both presidents was to advance in the discussion , he expressed.AGREEMENT WITH THE EUON the other hand, the senior authorities said that the contract between Mercosur and the EU will take some time because it is complex .

It is a really complicated contract.

Naturally, it will take some time (...) There are problems that still require to be gone over with the EU.

There are some points concerning the intellectual property list of geographical indicators that we are yet to close.

There are concerns about how to structure the contract, which we still need to specify, and this may impact the speed of how we are going to complete whatever, he said.European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans stated the EU anticipates to sign the open market contract with Mercosur in July.

It is among the most crucial agreements we have.

We have been negotiating for a long time now.

The settlements had different stages.

Our evaluation is that some points are missing to finalize the agreement, but we have actually made quite a lot of progress in the settlements.

The main negotiations have actually been concluded; now we are missing out on some more comprehensive points to start preparing the texts because each of them has to be approved by each of the congresses , added Cannabrava.However, he stressed that in the meeting in between the German Chancellor (head of federal government) Olaf Scholz and Lula in Brasilia on Monday 30, it was clear that there is a spirit of progress and that the contract is very important .

Cannabrava added that the objective is that the contract preserves its balance so that there is a balance between the positions and is helpful for both sides .

Both blocs signed such an arrangement in June 2019, 20 years after the start of negotiations.Still, it has not yet participated in force due to the fact that it needs ratification by all member countries, and there are diverse positions within the EU.In early October 2020, the European Parliament voted against ratification of the negotiated treaty due to doubts about the environmental dedications and safeguards contained in the text.In October 2019, France revealed it would not sign the treaty arguing that Brazil does not appreciate the Amazon rainforest or the Paris Agreement against climate change.With information from Sputnik