Forget tariff wars: The EU and Mercosur build one of the world's...

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : Apex, a Brazilian government investment agency, estimates that EU-bound agricultural exports like instant coffee, poultry and orange juice will rake in $7 billion in coming years.
55% : " The accord grants South American nations, renowned for their fertile land and skilled farmers, increased access at a preferential tax rate to Europe´s vast market for agricultural goods.
55% : "EU leaders decided that the deal is so important at this moment, it's worth it.
54% : Italy and other agricultural powerhouses only came around after the EU offered farmers generous subsidies to the tune of $52 billion.
51% : But against a starkly different geopolitical background and tough odds - including backlash from powerful protectionist lobbies - the EU and the South American alliance known as Mercosur are expected to formally sign their quarter-century-in-the-making trade pact this Saturday at a ceremony in Paraguay.
51% : The EU has scrambled to soothe their concerns over decades of negotiations, adding environmental and animal welfare safeguards to the accord and imposing strict quotas for South American exports of meat and sugar to ensure homegrown produce stays competitive.
49% : "He sees this agreement as a way to revitalize and re-signify Mercosur," said Marcelo Elizondo, an Argentine economic analyst specializing in international trade.
49% : "Failing to sign the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement risked pushing Latin American economies closer to Beijing´s orbit," said Agathe Demarais, a senior policy fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations.
48% : It´s a breakthrough for Argentina, a nation dominated for decades by left-leaning populist governments that kept the economy closed to the outside world and prioritized the domestic market to the extent of imposing taxes on farm exports to keep food prices down.
48% : Even so, the angry farmers ultimately persuaded France, Poland and a few other states to oppose the deal in last week's internal EU vote, depriving the accord's supporters of what they hoped would be a show of unity.
47% : CAÑUELAS, Argentina (AP) - Talks on a landmark free trade deal between the European Union and four South American countries started so long ago that the euro wasn´t even in circulation, China hadn´t yet joined the World Trade Organization and Venezuela was still America´s top oil provider.
47% : The free-trade fever has also infected Brazil's long-closed economy.
45% : (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) A banner with writing in Italian "Mercusur, the tomb of made in Italy" hangs from a truck during a farmers protest against the Mercosur deal, a free trade deal between the European Union and five South American nations, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.
41% : The significance of creating one of the world's largest free-trade zones - home to more than 700 million people and accounting for a quarter of global gross domestic product - while President Donald Trump yanks the United States out of the international economy is not lost on the signatories.
36% : " Argentine President Javier Milei may be Trump´s strongest ideological ally in Latin America - sharing his disdain for the United Nations and the Paris climate accord - but no one can call the radical libertarian a protectionist.
35% : Squeezed by environmental regulations and fearing a flood of cheap food products from across the Atlantic, farmers have blocked highways and descended on the streets of European capitals in an explosion of outrage against the agreement.

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