EU delays massive free-trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur
[December 19, 2025] By
SAM McNEIL and ANGELA CHARLTON
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is delaying a massive free-trade deal
with South American countries after fiery protests by farmers and
last-minute opposition by France and Italy threatened to derail the
pact, seen by its backers as an important geopolitical move for both
continents.
Top EU officials had hoped to sign the EU-Mercosur deal in Brazil this
weekend, after 26 years of negotiations. Instead, European Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday after a tense EU summit that
the signature will be delayed ‘’a few extra weeks to address some issues
with member states.''
Experts say the delay could dent the EU’s negotiating credibility
globally as it seeks to forge new trade ties amid commercial tensions
with the U.S. and China. Once ratified, the trade deal would cover a
market of 780 million people and a quarter of the globe’s gross domestic
product, and progressively remove duties on almost all goods traded
between the two blocs.
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the postponement, as did
French farmers unions, who fear the deal would undercut their
livelihoods. France had led opposition to the deal between the EU and
the five active Mercosur countries — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay,
Paraguay and Bolivia. Italy raised new reservations Wednesday.
Thursday's agreement for a delay was reached between von der Leyen and
European Council President Antonio Costa on the sidelines of the EU
summit with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, on the condition that Italy
would vote in favor of the agreement in January, an EU official said.
Chaos in the streets of Brussels
The decision came hours after farmers in tractors blocked roads and set
off fireworks in Brussels to protest the trade deal, prompting police to
respond with tear gas and water cannons.
The farmers brought potatoes and eggs to throw and waged a furious
back-and-forth with police. Protesters burned tires and a faux wooden
coffin bearing the word “Agriculture.” Their fire unleashed a black
cloud that swirled with white tear gas. The European Parliament
evacuated some staff due to damage caused by protesters.
“We are fighting to defend our jobs,” said Armand Chevron, a 23-year old
French farmer.
Hundreds of farmers like Pierre Vromann, 60, had arrived on tractors,
which they parked to block roads around the key institutions of the EU.
The Mercosur deal would be “bad for farmers, bad for consumers, bad for
citizens and bad for Europe,” said Vromann, who raises cattle and grains
in the nearby Belgian city of Waterloo.
Other farmers came from as far away as Spain and Poland.
Reservations about the deal are growing
Macron dug in against the deal upon arrival at Thursday's summit, and
wouldn't commit to supporting the deal next month either. He said he has
been in discussions with Italian, Polish, Belgian, Austrian and Irish
colleagues among others about delaying it to address farmers' concerns.
“Farmers already face an enormous amount of challenges,″ he said, as
farmer protests over the trade deal and a cattle disease roil regions
around France. “We cannot sacrifice them to this accord.”
Worried by a surging far right that rallies support by criticizing the
deal, Macron's centrist government has demanded safeguards to monitor
and stop large economic disruption in the EU, increased regulations in
the Mercosur nations like pesticide restrictions, and more inspections
of imports at EU ports.
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A protestor picks up tire to throw onto a fire during a
demonstration of European farmers outside the EU Summit meeting in
Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)
 Italy's Meloni also warned against
signing the agreement this week.
“Work is underway to postpone the Mercosur summit, which gives us a
few more weeks to try to provide the answers our farmers are asking
for, the safeguards that are necessary for our products, and thus
enable us to approve the Mercosur agreement,'' she said early
Friday.
Von der Leyen needs the backing of at least two-thirds of EU nations
to secure the deal. Italy’s opposition would give France enough
votes to veto von der Leyen’s signature.
In Greece, farmers have set up roadblocks along highways across the
country for weeks, protesting delays in agricultural subsidy
payments as well as high production costs and low product prices
that they say are strangling their sector and making it impossible
to make ends meet.
A possible counterweight to China and the US
Supporters say the EU-Mercosur deal would offer a clear alternative
to Beijing's export controls and Washington's tariff blitzkrieg,
while detractors say it will undermine both environmental
regulations and the EU's iconic agricultural sector.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said ahead of the Brussels summit,
“If the European Union wants to remain credible in global trade
policy, then decisions must be made now.''
The deal is also about strategic competition between Western nations
and China over Latin America, said Agathe Demarais, a senior fellow
at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “A failure to sign the
EU-Mercosur free trade agreement risks pushing Latin American
economies closer to Beijing’s orbit,” she said.
South America's agitation over the delays
The political tensions that have marked Mercosur in recent years —
especially between Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei and
Brazil’s center-left Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the bloc’s two main
partners — have not deterred South American leaders from pursuing an
alliance with Europe that will benefit their agricultural sectors.
Lula has been one of the most fervent promoters of the agreement. He
was betting on closing the deal Saturday and scoring a major
diplomatic achievement ahead of next year’s general elections. He
said he was surprised by Italy’s hesitancy.
At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Lula was clearly irked by Italy and
France's positions.
“If we don't do it now, Brazil won't make any more agreements while
I'm president,” Lula said, adding that the agreement would “defend
multilateralism” as Trump pursues unilateralism.
Milei, a close ideological ally of Trump, also supports the deal.
“We must stop thinking of Mercosur as a shield that protects us from
the world and start thinking of it as a spear that allows us to
effectively penetrate global markets,” he said some time ago.
___
Associated Press writers Debora Rey in Buenos Aires, Claudia Ciobanu
in Warsaw, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Elene Becatoros in Athens,
Gabriela Sá Pessoa in Sao Paulo, and Sylvain Plazy and Lorne Cook in
Brussels contributed to this report.
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