The European Union is preparing to implement its contentious free trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc in the coming months, despite opposition from France and a pending legal challenge, EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on Friday.
The deal, covering Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, could eliminate around 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion) in duties on EU exports, making it the EU’s largest free trade agreement in terms of potential tariff reductions. Signed in January after 25 years of negotiations, the accord has strong backing from Germany and Spain but faces pushback from France, which worries that cheaper imports of commodities such as beef and sugar could hurt domestic farmers.
Last month, the European Parliament voted to challenge the agreement in the bloc’s top court, a move that could delay implementation by up to two years. However, the European Commission has the option to provisionally apply the deal sooner, a route Sefcovic indicated could be taken.
“When our Mercosur partners are ready with ratification, we should be ready as well,” Sefcovic told reporters ahead of a meeting with EU trade ministers in Cyprus. He added that Argentina may be the first country to ratify the deal, with decisive steps expected this week.
As reported in Reuters the EU executive is exploring a fast-track approach to implement the agreement, consulting Mercosur members, EU states, and European Parliament representatives. Delays are seen as costly, particularly as the bloc seeks to offset lost business due to U.S. tariffs and reduce reliance on China, notably for critical minerals. A study by think-tank ECIPE estimated that failure to ratify the deal earlier cost the EU 291 billion euros in GDP between 2021 and 2025.
Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee, suggested that the EU Court of Justice could rule on the legal challenge in six months, after which the agreement could either be paused or provisionally enforced by April or May.
Sefcovic also indicated that the EU might use recently concluded free trade agreements with India and Indonesia as test cases for expediting implementation, signaling a potential shift toward faster adoption of trade deals across the bloc.
