Publication

This paper aims at assessing the economic and political importance of Mercosur for the EU’s interests in the short and medium run. It identifies and analyzes options for a Mercorsur-EU preferential trade agreement (PTA) taking into account the EU’s current trade policy and the divergent views on the role of trade between Brazil on the one hand, and Argentina and Venezuela, on the other hand. The paper concludes that, unless there are dramatic changes in Mercosur’s present trajectory, the goal of negotiating a fully-fledged PTA should be set aside for some time. This does not imply leaving the negotiating table, but rather focusing on negotiating topics that remain attractive to both sides in the current context.