The European Union and Mercosur have delivered their long-sought trade pact, along with a political statement few could have imagined when talks began 25 years ago.
The deal with the South American bloc of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay will create a free-trade area large enough to rival the decades-old North American arrangement now known as USMCA. Beyond commerce, it is a major geopolitical win for the EU, strengthening its foothold in a resource-rich region increasingly contested by the US and China.
For European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and leaders like Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the agreement is meant to signal independence from the world’s two largest economies – and to show that broad multilateral deals remain possible in a global order upended by Donald Trump.
“A historic day for multilateralism,” Lula, as the Brazilian leader is known, said in a social
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