The trade provisions of the association agreement between the European Union and Mercosur will start to be provisionally applied as of next May 1st, according to the announcement made by the European Commission this Monday. The Community Executive has notified the Mercosur countries of the provisional application instrument of the interim trade agreement by sending its verbal note to Paraguay, the country that holds the treaties of the South American bloc, thus completing the last procedural step necessary in accordance with the EU Council's decision of January 9th.
The agreement will be provisionally applied between the EU and all Mercosur countries that have completed their ratification procedures and have notified Brussels before the end of March. Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay have already completed this procedure, while Paraguay has recently ratified the treaty, and the European Commission expects it to send its notification shortly. According to the established procedure, the agreement enters into provisional application as of the first day of the second month following the corresponding notification, which places the date on May 1st.
The provisional application means the elimination of tariffs on certain products from day one, which, according to the Commission, creates predictable rules for trade and investment. The agreement will cover a market of approximately 720 million people and a combined economy estimated at about 22 trillion dollars. In trade terms, it foresees the liberalization of the vast majority of exchanges between both regions and will allow more than 90% of Mercosur's exports to enter the European market without paying tariffs.
The Trade Commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, has stated that with this step the EU is demonstrating "an important sign of its credibility as a trading partner" and that the priority now is to translate the agreement into concrete results, providing European exporters with the platform they need to seize new opportunities for trade, growth, and employment.
The European Commission has pointed out that the sensitive sectors of the community economy are protected by safeguards, especially regarding products such as meat, rice, or honey, which will enter with reduced tariffs but with a limited quota. These protection mechanisms would be activated if it is detected at the border that quantities exceeding the agreed limits or excessively low prices enter, which could lead to the suspension of imports.
However, the European agricultural sector, including the Andalusian sector, has repeatedly expressed its opposition to this treaty, considering that it will facilitate the entry of products from the southern cone produced with lower environmental requirements and lower labor costs. Agricultural producers maintain that the approved safeguards do not fully guarantee the necessary controls to avoid unfair competition with European production.
In addition to the trade provisions, the provisional application will guarantee, according to the Commission, greater cooperation between the EU and Mercosur on issues such as labor rights and climate change, and will allow the creation of more resilient and reliable supply chains, "which is crucial, in particular, to ensure a predictable flow of critical raw materials."
The full entry into force of the trade treaty will depend, however, on the ratification by the European Parliament. Before making a decision, the Eurochamber is awaiting an opinion from the Court of Justice of the European Union on whether the agreement complies with community treaties. Regarding the entire association agreement, which also includes political and cooperation provisions, it will be necessary for the parliaments of the twenty-seven Member States to speak out.
European exporters will be able to obtain information on how to benefit from the agreement through the Access2Markets platform, whose specific content will be available soon.
The provisional start of the agreement has direct implications for maritime and port trade, given that Mercosur is one of the main trading partners of European ports, especially in the bulk traffic of agri-foods, raw materials, and manufactured products. The gradual elimination of tariffs may lead to an increase in trade flows between both regions, which would impact the activity of southern European ports, including Spanish and Andalusian ports, which operate as the entry and exit gate for goods to and from South America.