EU and MERCOSUR Push to Finalize Trade Deal

The European Union and Latin American trade bloc mercosur are seeking to finalize the details of their long-delayed trade deal by early December, the Financial Times reported on November 19.

Negotiations between the EU and the four core nations of mercosur—Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay—have dragged on for years. The blocs agreed “in principle” to the treaty in 2019, but it was never ratified because the EU insisted on additional environmental commitments from the South American countries.

Pressure on: Final decisions on details within the major trade deal will have to be made soon. Paraguayan President Santiago Peña has said the deal must be sealed before he assumes the bloc’s rotating presidency on December 6. This puts extra pressure on Brazil’s president to finalize the deal before the end of his term.

An EU official said Brussels had “ramped up the frequency and intensity of negotiations in the belief that a landing zone for political agreement is only achievable under the Brazilian mercosur presidency.”

Radical Libertarian Javier Milei, who won Argentina’s presidential elections on Sunday, has threatened to withdraw the country from mercosur, adding additional pressure to ratify the deal.

The Trumpet says: Europe’s political and economic links to Latin America will help it become a power capable of challenging United States’ world dominance.

In 1962, the Trumpet’s predecessor magazine, the Plain Truth, wrote:

The United States is going to be left out in the cold as two gigantic trade blocs, Europe and Latin America, mesh together and begin calling the shots in world commerce.

Learn more: Read “Why You Need to Know About This Historic New Trade Deal.”