Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa to push for a review of EU restrictions on Brazilian exports, including meat and steel.

The talks were held on June 16 in Évian, France, on the sidelines of the G7 summit, where Brazil took part as a guest, according to Agência Brasil, the Brazilian state news agency.

Following the meeting, Lula said Brazil's foreign ministry would work with European Commission officials to examine the barriers limiting Brazilian products' access to the EU market.

"We are committed to seeking solutions that address European concerns — whether related to health, phytosanitary issues, or the protection of the European steel industry — as well as Brazil's legitimate export interests, in accordance with the Mercosur-European Union agreement," Lula wrote on social media.

The meeting came amid rising trade tensions between Brazil and the EU over agricultural exports. In May, the European Commission announced a ban on imports of Brazilian meat, offal, fish and honey, due to take effect on September 3. Brussels said Brazil had failed to provide sufficient evidence that producers complied with EU health standards across the entire production chain, citing particular concern over the use of antimicrobial drugs to treat and prevent infections in livestock.

The dispute lands awkwardly for both sides: the restrictions were announced just weeks after the EU-Mercosur trade agreement entered provisional force on May 1, following Brazil's own ratification. Rather than easing access for Brazilian meat, the timing has added a fresh point of friction to an agreement both blocs spent a quarter of a century negotiating, and which is designed to gradually open the EU market to Brazilian beef and poultry through tariff-rate quotas phased in over several years.

Brazil's stake in that outcome is disproportionate to its place as just one of Mercosur's members. The country generates roughly 60% of the bloc's combined GDP, with Argentina contributing about 30% and Paraguay and Uruguay 5% each, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, making it by far Mercosur's dominant economy and its chief interlocutor with Brussels. In exchange for the tariff relief at stake, Brazil offers the EU a market of more than 200mn consumers, major volumes of beef, poultry, sugar and ethanol, and a strategic foothold in critical minerals. The country holds the world's largest niobium reserves, sizeable nickel and graphite deposits, and nearly a quarter of global rare earth reserves, resources Brussels is courting as it seeks alternatives to Chinese supply chains under its Critical Raw Materials Act.

But the wider pact, which creates one of the world's largest free trade zones encompassing over 700mn consumers and 30% of global GDP, remains far from settled. Von der Leyen pressed ahead with provisional implementation in February despite objections from the European Parliament, which had referred the agreement to the European Court of Justice for a legal review after it was signed in Asunción in January – a challenge still working through the courts, with a final ruling potentially more than a year away. France's Emmanuel Macron, under pressure from powerful French agriculture lobbying groups, called the move a "bad surprise" that disrespected lawmakers, while Germany and Spain welcomed it.

A trade deal meant to widen access for Brazilian meat, paired with a near-simultaneous Commission ban on the same products, is the contradiction Lula is now asking Brussels to resolve.