Will the EU-Mercosur partnership get off the ground?

Many EU products presently wage precocious export tariffs to the Mercosur bloc, comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Some notable examples are cars (35%), wines and spirits (up to 35%), food (28%) and machinery (up to 20%).

With the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement, these tariffs volition beryllium eliminated oregon importantly reduced, creating caller opportunities for a marketplace of 780 cardinal consumers, representing 25% of satellite trade.

The European Commission has conscionable presented a connection for the ratification process of the governmental statement reached successful December 2024. However, farmers, environmentalists, immoderate groups successful the European Parliament and member states reason the agreement.

"It is simply a risky undertaking due to the fact that if the full statement is ratified by nationalist parliaments, immoderate of them whitethorn reason the text, arsenic it happened already successful the past," explains Peggy Corlin, Euronews elder newsman for commercialized policy.  

"The European Commission has decided to abstracted the commercialized portion from the governmental one, truthful that the Council of Member States volition ballot the substance by qualified majority. It volition beryllium besides voted by the European Parliament by a elemental majority, truthful determination are much chances to beryllium implemented quickly," she added.

France, Poland and Italy are among the astir sceptical subordinate states, fearing the interaction connected their important agro-industrial sector. At slightest 15 member states, representing 65% of the EU population, indispensable ballot successful favour for the commercialized agreement for it to participate into force.

The cultivation assemblage is 1 of the biggest critics of the agreement, which is wherefore the European Commission precocious added safeguards successful a caller ineligible substance to beryllium annexed to the deal. These see quotas limiting imports of products considered astir delicate (such arsenic beef, poultry, sugar, atom and honey) and a €6.3 cardinal money to assistance farmers affected by marketplace crises.

A caller geopolitical stance aft ‘America First’

One of the drivers for faster ratification is the alteration to the geopolitical concern since the negotiations with Mercosur started astir 25 years ago.

"The astir important trading spouse for Latin America has go China. We perfectly request to reason this statement besides to go a much important trading spouse for Latin America," said Karel Lanoo,  chief enforcement of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) deliberation vessel based successful Brussels.

"After the astir scandalous EU-US commercialized agreement, the EU could beryllium seen arsenic un unreliable partner," Lanoo said of the woody sealed in August, that volition rise tariffs to 15% connected astir 70% of EU goods exported to the US.

The Mercosur deal will besides summation entree to indispensable earthy materials, which could importantly interaction EU industry. "It's again an opportunity for america trim drastically the immense dependence we person from China, which was built up without america noticing," said the CEPS analyst.

A radical of left-wing MEPs is starring a draught solution to artifact the ratification process of the statement with Mercosur earlier the European Court of Justice, criticising the solution projected by the European Commission.

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Journalist: Isabel Marques da Silva

Content production: Pilar Montero López

Video production: Zacharia Vigneron

Graphism: Loredana Dumitru

Editorial coordination: Ana Lázaro Bosch and Jeremy Fleming-Jones