France and Italy contest EU-Mercosur agreement
The governments of France and Italy have argued that the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur under negotiation does not effectively protect European farmers and jeopardizes the “continent’s food sovereignty”.
Following the meeting between the French Minister Delegate for Europe, Benjamin Haddad, and the Italian Minister for European Affairs, Tommaso Foti, on Wednesday in Rome, the two governments stated in a joint statement that they support fair free trade, as well as sustainable trade agreements, but that a “more balanced” understanding with Mercosur is needed.
“Italy and France consider that, although it contains advantages, the EU agreement does not sufficiently protect European farmers against the risks of market disruption and does not sustainably guarantee the continent’s food sovereignty ,” the two parties said.
Therefore, Paris and Rome reaffirmed the need to include clauses that guarantee equity in health, environmental and social standards , so that there is a balance between producers on both sides of the Atlantic.
The EU-Mercosur agreement covers the 27 EU member states plus Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, equivalent to 25% of the global economy and 780 million people, almost 10% of the world's population.
After lengthy negotiations, the political agreement on the trade pillar of the EU-Mercosur treaty was announced in December 2024. Before it enters into force, the agreement still has to go through several crucial stages, namely legal review, submission to the Council and ratification by the various member countries.
Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro this week defended the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, saying that Europe would set “a bad example” if it failed to implement an agreement negotiated over 25 years . The agreement, he argued, “opens up a commercial space with more than 700 million consumers” and gives Europe “the advantage of being able to demand reciprocity in the rules applicable to companies on both sides of the Atlantic”.
“We set a bad example if we fail to implement an agreement that we ourselves negotiated,” Montenegro said in parliament, during the preparatory debate for the European Council, which will take place on the 26th and 27th in Brussels.
Last year, the European Union (EU) imported 56 billion euros of goods from Mercosur countries and exported 55.2 billion, registering a deficit of 800 million euros , Eurostat announced this Friday.
Compared to 2023, imports from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay increased by 4.2% and exports fell by 1.3%. The largest partner among the four Mercosur countries was, in 2024, Brazil (89.5 billion euros), followed by Argentina (16.4 billion euros).
The majority of imports from Mercosur were primary goods (81.3% of the total), while the main EU exports to Mercosur were manufactured goods (86.6% of the total).
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In terms of value, the products most imported by the EU were oil and related products and materials (€12.1 billion), animal feed (€7.1 billion), coffee, tea, cocoa and spices (€5.2 billion), minerals and metal scrap (€4.9 billion) and oilseeds and oil fruits (€3.7 billion).
Among these products, imports of oil and related products and materials were those that increased the most in the last ten years (10.6 billion euros).
The most exported products from the EU to Mercosur were medicines and pharmaceutical products (6.8 billion euros), industrial machinery and equipment in general (5.4 billion euros), road vehicles (4.8 billion euros), specialised machinery for specific industries (3.4 billion euros) and electrical machinery, appliances and devices (3 billion euros).
Over the past decade, according to the EU statistics office, EU imports have increased by €18.8 billion (50.3%) and exports by €11.1 billion (25.1%).
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