(CNN)After more than 20 years of negotiations, Mercosur and the European Union reached a comprehensive trade agreement in Brussels on Friday.
“The new trade framework — part of a wider Association Agreement between the two regions — will consolidate a strategic political and economic partnership and create significant opportunities for sustainable growth on both sides,” a European Union news release said.
According to the EU statement, the deal aims to remove the majority of tariffs on EU exports to Mercosur, an economic and political bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, plus several associate members. Venezuela’s membership in the group was suspended in 2017, in a Mercosur resolution that cited a “rupture of democratic order” in the country.
