EU pushes forward long-discussed free trade deal with South America

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is renewing internal negotiations over a free trade agreement with five South American nations neighboring Venezuela a week after the United States' audacious raid there to detain President Nicolás Maduro.

Ministers of Agriculture from across the 27 European Union nations met in Brussels on Wednesday in part to discuss protecting farmers while also reaping the economic and geopolitical benefits of a free trade deal with the Mercosur nations of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. The EU's trade negotiator Maroš Šefčovič said after the meeting that while the deal would increase EU agrifood exports by up to 50%.

“It’s a landmark one. This is the biggest free trade agreement we ever negotiated,” Šefčovič said. He said that EU trading partners “value the EU for particular one thing in this turbulent world, one thing above all, this is credibility. So therefore, we must, safeguard this priceless currency by remaining a trusted and reliable trading partner.”

He said that EU negotiations over Mercosur will continue on Friday amid speculation that a deal could be signed in Paraguay on Jan. 12.

Fierce opposition from France in December, fired up by enraged farmers, derailed the deal and forced European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to scrap a trip to Brazil where top EU officials had hoped to sign the EU-Mercosur deal after 26 years of negotiations.

Italy is seen as the linchpin of the deal. If Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni joins the deal's supporters led by Germany, then it will pass over the objections of France and Poland. She posted on X on Tuesday that she welcomed von der Leyen's proposal to fast-track funds to farmers but Meloni did not promise crucial backing to the deal.

The Mercosur trade deal covers a market of 780 million people and a quarter of the globe’s gross domestic product, and would progressively remove duties on almost all goods traded between the two blocs. Such a massive free trade deal would provide a stark counterpoint in South America of economic diplomacy compared to the Trump administration's incursion into Venezuela and threats across the region.

The EU is seeking to forge new trade ties amid commercial tensions with the U.S. and China, and the December delay of Mercosur was seen to diminish the EU’s negotiating credibility.

French President Emmanuel Macron led opposition to the deal, which he sees as fueling a surging far right that rallies support by criticizing the deal. His centrist government has demanded safeguards to monitor and stop large economic disruption in the EU, increased regulations in the Mercosur nations like pesticide restrictions, and more inspections of imports at EU ports.

French Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard reaffirmed Wednesday France’s opposition to the Mercosur deal, because she said it threatens sectors including beef, chicken, sugar, ethanol and honey.

“As long as the combat is not over, nothing is lost,” she told French news broadcaster France Info, referring to the ongoing negotiations over the deal.

If the EU Commission signs the deal on Jan. 12, it will be debated at the European Parliament, she said. “There’s no guarantee the deal will be approved by the European Parliament,” she said.

She also acknowledged Italy “will likely” approve the deal.

Supporters say the EU-Mercosur deal would offer a clear alternative to Beijing’s export controls and Washington’s tariff blitzkrieg, while detractors say it will undermine both environmental regulations and the EU’s iconic agricultural sector.

Šefčovič said recent negotiations within the EU over the deal had led to new safeguards like “semiautomatic triggering thresholds” that would snap into place if Mercosur imports are found to be deeply undercutting EU products.

The political tensions that have marked Mercosur in recent years — especially between Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei and Brazil’s center-left Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the bloc’s two main partners — have not deterred South American leaders from pursuing an alliance with Europe that will benefit their agricultural sectors.

Venezuela was in Mercosur until 2016, when the trade bloc suspended its membership, a move criticized by Venezuela’s new prime minister Delcy Rodríguez, then the foreign minister.