Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will not attend the formal signing of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement in Asunción, Paraguay, on Saturday, opting to stay in Rio de Janeiro while the South American bloc wraps up one of its most consequential trade deals in decades. Lula will be the only Mercosur leader absent from the ceremony, which brings together Paraguay’s Santiago Peña, Argentina’s Javier Milei, Uruguay’s Yamandú Orsi and Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz alongside European Commission