Unlocking the eSignature Licitness for Agreements in European Union

How to eSign a document: e-signature licitness for agreements in European Union

this video was brought to you by nebula a trade deal between the European Union and the South American trade block merkasaur would be one of the largest in the world and by this point they've been working towards it for decades despite an agreement being reached in 2019 further progress was halted and the whole thing was basically put on Ice however A Renewed push this year has breathed some life back into the project so in this video we'll give you some background explain what's happening now and if this new world's biggest trade deal could become a reality [Music] foreign UK's subscriber count so if you haven't already please consider subscribing and ringing the bell to stay in the loop and help Teo your EU win the subscriber race first though let's get into some background merkasaur or the southern Common Market is a trade block of South American countries namely Brazil Argentina Paraguay and Uruguay with Venezuela suspended since 2016. now this block was created in 1991 in order to improve ties increase trade and spur development between the countries now obviously the other player in this story is the European Union which considering this is the tldr EU Channel hopefully doesn't need any additional explanation now negotiations for a trade deal between these two blocks began back in 1999 but it wasn't until two decades later in 2019 that talks finally concluded and an agreement was strong truck however after all of that effort the signing and ratification process soon stalled as the EU became increasingly concerned about deforestation in the Amazon particularly under Brazilian president yahir bolsonaro and as such the route to this Deal's ratification by every individual EU member state looks increasingly difficult since then the trade deal has effectively been on ice as National governments and parliaments including Ireland France the Netherlands and Austria have signaled their opposition to the deal now these countries might not like the deal but exporters from both blocks would benefit from the agreement which would cover a market of well over 700 million people when announcing the agreement in 2019 the European commission said that the deal was obviously great news for companies workers and the economy on both sides of the Atlantic saving over 4 billion euros worth of Duties per year making it the largest Trade Agreement and the EU has ever concluded despite the benefits and the Fanfare it was met with significant opposition from a range of different parties for a variety of different reasons European Farmers for instance particularly in France and Ireland feared the deal would see them undercut by imported meat and other food products from South America on the flip side the automotive industry in Argentina and Brazil fears that they'll take a hit if European manufacturers are given easier access to the South American Market it's not a trade either from an environmental perspective there are concerns that the trade agreements impact on meat production and soy cultivation in merkasaur countries would result in further deforestation particularly in the Amazon environmental activists also say that the deal would see greater exports of polluting vehicles from Europe to South America as well as pesticides and other chemicals that would have a negative environmental impact additionally indigenous group from Brazil have said the increased demands for farm products would threaten their lands and rights now unsurprisingly the freezing of this whole process was good news for the various interest groups we've just mentioned but in recent months the mood has started to change among some proponents of the agreement and there's growing optimism that the stalled trade deal could be revived a significant factor behind this was Brazil's presidential election in October last year which saw Luna De Silva's victory over bolsonaro not only did Lula's Victory bring about a return to warmer relations between Brazil and much of the European continent he had also been elected having promised stronger Environmental Protections and a reversal of the significant deforestation that had taken place under his predecessor in fact during the election Lula said that he wanted to see an agreement reach with the EU over the deal within six months of taking office and it's not just what's happened in South America either conditions seem to be far more favorable on the European side too the first half of 2023 has seen the rotating presidency of the European Council held by Sweden and the latter half of the Year held by Spain both countries have expressed an eagerness to see the deal revived and completed a notably different position to France who held the post during the first half of 2022 soap leaders on both sides of the Atlantic were hopeful that 2023 could finally be the year to get this done and to the EU clac which took place at the beginning of this week was seen as the prime opportunity to make progress as it brought together leaders from the EU and the community of Latin America and Caribbean States but to be fair that optimism has now receded somewhat as the parties try to settle their differences and actually come to a final agreement in March of this year the European commission proposed to merkasaur a side letter as an Annex their original 2019 agreement this side letter seeks extra environmental commitments designed to satisfy the concerns of European governments and the European Parliament but it ended up just frustrating their Latin American Partners instead Lulu said that the letter includes obligations that could result in sanctions if they weren't complied with something he described as unacceptable he added strategic Partners do not negotiate on the basis of distrust and the threat of sanctions with this and other concerns in mind Mercator negotiators postponed face-to-face talks that had been scheduled for the end of June in order to give themselves more time to prepare a counter proposal this counter proposal is also set to address another of Lula's major concerns which is a procurement Clause allowing European companies to bid for public contracts in merkasaur countries on equal terms with local firms anyway while this counter proposal is still being finalized the euclac summit this week saw little little tangible progress towards an actual agreement and if anything actually exposed divisions between the two regions on other issues like the war in Ukraine it's not even just Lula that wants to push back in this South American counteroffer though Argentina's foreign minister said earlier this month that the deal as it was closed in 2019 reflects an unequal effort between asymmetric blocks and does not respond to the current International scenario amid these concerns from mercosaur as well as the opposition from Individual EU member states the European commission has warned against reopening and renegotiating the agreement preferring to settle concerns through side papers and annexes the eu's trade Chief says that the 2019 deal was negotiated a very long time ago and strikes a carefully crafted economic balance so if we now reopen upset this economic balance this may lead again to Long negotiations with uncertain outcomes now it may seem that these sides are further apart than they were when negotiations concluded in 2019 and even back then things were put on ice for a reason but the fact that these disputes are being discussed and negotiated does at least reflect the fact that there is actually political will to try and finalize a deal something that just wasn't the case a couple of years ago in fact there's a view that 2023 might represent the last chance for a signing of the long delayed deal a timeline that Ursula vondelion says is Within Reach nonetheless it will certainly be a challenge to try and spend enough time to find a settlement that sufficiently pleases both sides but without spending so much time that momentum is lost or Dynamics change due to domestic events like Argentina's election later this year or the European parliamentary election that comes next year so regardless of what's agreed it does seem that time is running out this is just one of many geopolitical tensions right now though China is an obvious example of another actor whose decisions seem increasingly troubling at the moment ultimately that's why it's important that we understand these nations and their problems in a detailed way and a good way to learn more is through polymater's brilliant series China actually this show runs through issues from Chinese censorship and their nuclear policy to how the country has come to dominate rare Earth mineral production something we've discussed before in tldr videos if that sounds good to you then you can watch this series alongside a load of others which perfectly complement Theory our videos exclusively on our streaming service nebula where you can also find a bunch of TR content too that's because we post all of 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