What is Mercosur, the trade bloc that traded 111 billion worth of goods with the EU in 2024

The Mercosur is the Common Market of the South, a South American trading bloc established in 1991 to which Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay belong. Venezuela joined in 2012, but its membership was suspended in 2017. In December 2012, Bolivia's accession protocol was signed, but the text is awaiting ratification by the parliaments of the Mercosur countries.

The Council of Europe explains that, collectively, the Mercosur countries constitute the sixth largest economy in the world, with a total population of 270 million people.

The European Union is Mercosur's second partner in terms of trade in goods, accounting for almost 17% of Mercosur's total trade in 2024. For its part, Mercosur is Europe's tenth partner for trade in goods.

Data provided by the Council of Europe say that in 2024 the value of the European Union's trade with Mercosur exceeded€111 billion: €55.2 billion in exports and €56 billion in imports. More than 80% of the trade flow was between Europe and Brazil. In ten years, between 2014 and 2024, trade in goods between the EU and the South American common market grew by more than 36%: imports increased by more than 50% and exports by 25%.

But what goods does Europe export and what goods does it import from Mercosur? Exports include mainly means of transport, machinery, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, while we import agricultural products and minerals, pulp and paper. The safeguard clauses on the agreement voted by the European Parliament concern precisely agricultural products and serve to reassure farmers, French farmers in particular, who oppose the treaty. It is a bill, passed with 431 votes in favour, 70 abstentions and 161 against, which aims to establish the modalities by which the EU can temporarily suspend tariff preferences on agricultural products from Mercosur countries - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - if these imports harm EU producers.