BRUSSELS — The “cows for cars” free-trade deal between Europe and South America could be about to undergo some last-minute changes.
For Brazil, the deal can still happen as long as imports of electric cars are limited, according to diplomats who spoke to POLITICO. For the European Union, it can only happen as long as the cows aren’t raised on deforested land.
Those are the two big issues standing in the way of (yet) another push to complete talks on creating a free-trade zone between the EU and the Mercosur bloc that would span nearly 800 million people and account for a fifth of global GDP.
The two sides have been in talks for a quarter century, and hopes are rising that they might — just might — finally clinch an agreement at the G20 summit that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is hosting in Rio in November.
