Decades in the making: the EU-MERCOSUR Agreement

Abstract

The signing of the MERCOSUR-EU trade agreement in 2019 at the G20 summit has expanded the global reach of the South American trade bloc as a multilateral actor and represents the largest trade agreement ever achieved by the European Union and Mercosur. The purpose of this article is to briefly analyze the details of the agreement, as well as the motivations that led to its signing after a 20-year period of on-and-off negotiations. We also try to contextualize this agreement with other FTAs that the EU has carried out in the Americas during the last decade, such as TTIP, CETA and the EU-Mexico Trade Agreement. We argue that these new mega-regional agreements, although rooted in scenarios of mutual economical benefit, compete to establish new rules of international trade.