Brazil

Why the upcoming presidential elections in Brazil are crucial for Switzerland, which wants to ratify a free trade agreement.

The Brazil-Switzerland parliamentary group, he says, is an instrument for exchanging ideas and could contribute to the discussion in the Brazilian senate. It would not take much for the EFTA-Mercosur treaty to garner the political support it needs on both sides. “Congress has had no opportunity as yet to discuss ratification of the free trade agreement between Mercosur and EFTA,” he says. He concedes that the president will have an important role in setting foreign trade policy, but notes that the national parliament gets to ratify international agreements. “So Lula and his Workers’ Party will do their best to strengthen Brazil as an economic power in Latin America, without exposing it to more competition from a free trade agreement with industrialised countries,” says Nell. “NGOs see a trade agreement as the wrong signal to be sending.” Switzerland does not need to wait for the EU’s negotiations with Mercosur to wrap up, says Elsig. Switzerland is keeping a close eye on it all, since whoever becomes president will have a say in whether the Alpine country can get access to the Latin American market. But other factors, namely diverging interpretations of the text that still need to be sorted out, are also to blame. But it is not clear when this agreement is going to be ratified. The Lula government was the most corrupt in the history of Brazil, said current president Jair Bolsonaro during a televised debate with his opponent, ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. For Switzerland, which is keen to ratify an FTA, the upcoming general elections in Brazil could prove crucial.This content was published on September 23, 2022 - 09:00