Uruguay and Argentina ratify EU-Mercosur trade pact, first within bloc
Uruguay and Argentina ratified a free-trade agreement with the European Union on Thursday, making them the first founding members of Mercosur to approve the pact. The approvals move a deal that has been under negotiation for a quarter century closer to taking effect and bring the bloc’s remaining members into the next stage of national ratification.
In Uruguay, lawmakers approved the agreement in the lower house by a landslide 91-2 vote, following a Senate vote from the previous day, according to the report. Congressman Juan Martín Rodríguez described the moment as a sign of Uruguay’s urgency, saying: “Uruguay has sent a strong message to the United States, Mercosur and Europe: that we have waited 25 years, but we are not willing to wait a single second longer.”
Argentina’s Senate also ratified the trade agreement on Thursday, delivering an overwhelming 69-3 vote with no abstentions, after the Chamber of Deputies approved the pact on Feb. 12. The report said the ruling party pushed for a swift session so that Argentina could become the first country to ratify, though deliberations lasted four hours.
The agreement involves countries that, together, account for more than 700 million people and roughly a quarter of global gross domestic product, the report said. Once fully implemented, it would create one of the world’s largest free-trade zones, expanding trade ties across the Atlantic between Mercosur and the EU.
Brazil and Paraguay, the other two founding Mercosur members, were poised to approve the pact in the coming weeks, leaving the deal pending only those remaining national steps. The report also said the trans-Atlantic agreement was signed on Jan. 17, ending a 25-year deadlock that had lingered in part over European agricultural concerns about unfair competition.
Legal uncertainty still shadows the timeline. European lawmakers challenged the agreement in the bloc’s top court shortly after signing, raising questions about the deal’s legality; the report said any court decision could take months. It also said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has indicated the EU would proceed once at least one Mercosur nation ratifies the agreement.
The report quoted von der Leyen characterizing the ratified deal as a “powerful endorsement of multilateralism” in what she called “the face of an increasingly hostile and transactional world.”