Stay updated with free updates
just sign up eu trade myFT Digest – delivered straight to your inbox.
The EU will lose global credibility if it fails to ratify its trade deal with the Mercosur group of South American countries this week, the bloc’s top trade official said.
EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said this week a delay in the approval vote could sink the deal with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – the largest ever struck by the European bloc.
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu called for a moratorium on Sunday, saying safeguards put in place by Brussels to protect farmers from a surge in food imports, particularly cheap chicken and beef, were “still incomplete”.
“I think it’s a matter of the EU’s credibility and predictability,” Sefcovic told the Financial Times. “We talk often in Europe about the need to be strategic. A strategic decision has to be taken.”
Diplomats have warned that if this week’s vote is delayed, Mercosur countries could walk away from the agreement, dealing a huge blow to EU efforts to diversify trading partners and boost the bloc’s moribund economy in the face of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“It has everything we need,” Sefcovic said, arguing that it would open markets to EU cars and machinery and promise access to vital raw minerals to reduce dependence on China.
Mercosur, which was agreed last year but has not yet received final approval from EU member states, has been dubbed a “cars for cows” trade deal. The EU wants to export industrial goods and Mercosur its meat, soybeans and grains.
But farmers across the EU have mobilized against the proposed agreement, forcing some governments including Poland and Hungary to oppose it.
For French President Emmanuel Macron, supporting Mercosur could attract more voters to the country’s far-right Rassemblement National party ahead of the 2027 presidential election, experts say.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen intends to travel to Brazil on Saturday to sign the deal, but won’t fly without support from the bloc’s capitals.
Šefčovič said the safeguard measure, which would reimpose tariffs if imports of South American products outweighed domestic EU production, was a “reinsurance” policy. He argued that the deal already guaranteed protection from increased imports and had more than €6bn in reserves to support farmers in the event of losses.
“We spent a lot of time with our farming community, listening to them as well as addressing their concerns. And now I honestly believe we did that,” Sefcovic said.
He said the Mercosur deal, which would open a market of 270 million people to European wines, spirits and food products, would benefit farmers.
EU agriculture, he said, was a “global superpower”. “We are exporting €235bn annually,” he said, pointing to a positive trade balance of €39bn last year for the bloc’s agri-food sector globally.
“Our Latin American partners are now eager to sign it (the deal) – this is a signal that now is the time to do so,” Sefcovic said.
But those partners also wanted deals that were “commercially viable and meaningful” or could otherwise walk away, he warned.
European trade groups said last week that the deal, which took 25 years to negotiate, was more important than ever following US tariffs on EU goods and Chinese restrictions on imports.
Šefčovič said the group is negotiating trade deals with several other countries from India to Australia and Malaysia as it looks for new markets. But if the EU couldn’t meet the agreements its negotiators had already made, they could have second thoughts.
“If we can’t make such an important decision on this type of deal, I can imagine it could create doubt in the minds of our negotiating partners,” he said.
