Lula classifies the EU’s demands for an agreement with Mercosur as a threat

Maintaining a haughty attitude towards the European Union, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva once again rejected the terms imposed by the bloc for an agreement with Mercosur to be closed. During participation in the New Global Financial Pact summit, this Friday (23rd) in Paris, Lula classified the demands as a threat and demanded that trade agreements become fairer. The event was organized by the French government.

Alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Lula said: “It is not possible that we have a strategic partnership and there is an additional letter threatening a strategic partner. How are we going to solve this?”.

He also highlighted: “I’m dying to make an agreement with the European Union, but it’s not possible. The additional letter that was made by the EU does not allow an agreement to be made. We’re going to make the answer and we’re going to send the answer. But we need to start talking.”

Read too: For Lula, the EU’s proposal for an agreement with Mercosur is unacceptable

Still in the economic field, Lula spoke about the creation of new currencies for trade between countries. “And there are people who get scared when I say that we need to create new currencies for us to trade. I don’t know why Brazil and Argentina have to trade in dollars. Why can’t we do it in our coins? I don’t know why Brazil and China can’t do it in our currencies. Why do I have to buy dollars?”.

The president also said that this discussion is on his agenda. “If it’s up to me, it will happen at the Brics meeting, which will be in September. And it will also happen at the G-20 meeting, because we will need to get more African colleagues to participate in the G-20. As you are doing at the G-7”, he argued.

Read too: Lula argues that rich countries must pay historic debt to the planet

Lula also pointed out that the international forums “cannot be a luxury group. The political elite. No. We have to call the unequal, the different, so that we can address the plurality of problems that the world has. All of us, all of us, have as a parameter what happened in the European Union. You know, Macron, that I think that the construction of the European Union was a democratic heritage of humanity”.

In his speech, the president also spoke about the fight against inequality, the preservation of the Amazon and global commitments to fight the climate crisis. Follow coverage on the topics in the Red Portal.

Later, after the event, Lula had lunch with President Emmanuel Macron, at the Élysée Palace, the official residence of the French president.

with agencies