Earlier, Mr Trump threatened to slap trade tariffs on countries that do not support his plans to take over Greenland, part of the territory of NATO ally Denmark<\/a>.<\/p>\nMr Lula added that the partnership with the EU went “beyond the economic dimension”.<\/p>\n
“The European Union and Mercosur share values such as respect for democracy, the rule of law, and human rights.”<\/p>\n
The signing of the deal comes as Latin America is still reeling from Mr Trump’s ouster and capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a dramatic military operation.<\/p>\n
The deal between the EU and Mercosur nations Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, was agreed in Brussels last week despite fierce opposition from European farmers.<\/p>\n
They fear the deal will lead to an influx of cheaper South American products due to production standards considered less stringent.<\/p>\n
Thousands have been protesting in Ireland, France, Poland and Belgium in recent days.<\/p>\n
Together, the EU and Mercosur account for 30% of global GDP and more than 700 million consumers.<\/p>\n
The treaty eliminates tariffs on more than 90% of bilateral trade.<\/p>\n
This will favour European exports of cars, wine, and cheese, while making it easier for South American beef, poultry, sugar, rice, honey, and soybeans to enter Europe.<\/p>\n
The deal between the EU and Mercosur nations Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, was agreed in Brussels last week despite fierce opposition from European farmers.<\/p>\n
Ms Von der Leyen will now head to Asuncion in Paraguay for the signing ceremony, which Mr Lula will not attend.<\/p>\n
His office said the signing had been initially planned as a ministerial-level event, and Paraguay issued “last-minute” invites to presidents.<\/p>\n
In addition to host president Santiago Pena, Uruguay’s president Yamandu Orsi will also attend the signing.<\/p>\n
The attendance of Argentina’s leader Javier Milei is not confirmed.<\/p>\n
Ms Von der Leyen said it was important for her to meet with Ms Lula before the signing, highlighting his role in the negotiations, which he made a priority of his third term in office.<\/p>\n
“You are a leader deeply committed to the values we hold dear, democracy, the rules-based international order and respect. This is the leadership we need in today’s world.”<\/p>\n
Mr Lula said Brazil was also working on trade partnerships with Canada, Mexico, Vietnam, Japan and China.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the EU is working on a trade deal with India, the world’s most populous nation with 1.4 billion people, whose relations have soured with Washington due to punishing tariffs.<\/p>\n
Geopolitical tensions are also rising over strategic minerals, with Mr Trump insisting the US needs access to Greenland’s critical raw materials, which are largely unmined.<\/p>\n
Ms Von der Leyen said the EU and Brazil were also “moving towards a very important political agreement on critical raw materials” such as lithium, nickel and rare earths that “tend to become an instrument of coercion”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen have hailed a trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-248492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}