THE EUROPEAN UNION will implement a mammoth trade deal with the South American Mercosur bloc while waiting for a top court’s ruling on its legality, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has said.

The European Commission’s move, announced after Argentina and Uruguay ratified the agreement yesterday, comes despite strong opposition from key power France.

“The commission will now proceed with provisional application,” von der Leyen said in Brussels, recalling that member states had given the EU executive power to do so.

“Provisional application is, by its nature, provisional,” she added, saying: “The agreement can only be fully concluded once the European Parliament has given its consent.”

She hailed the ratification by the two South American countries as “good news”.

The commission will now formally exchange with the Mercosur countries and two months after those exchanges, provisional application will begin, EU trade spokesman Olof Gill told reporters.

The deal still needs a green light from lawmakers in the European Parliament, which referred it to the EU’s top court within days of being inked in January.

‘Bad manners’

France has led opposition to the deal and unsuccessfully attempted to block it over worries for its farmers, who fear being undercut by cheaper goods from Brazil and its neighbours.

“For France, this is a surprise, and a bad one,” French president Emmanuel Macron said in a strongly-worded statement today, adding the move showed “bad manners towards the European Parliament”.

“The European Commission has made the unilateral decision to provisionally apply the agreement with Mercosur, even though the European Parliament has not voted on it. It is thus taking on a very heavy responsibility.”

President Emmanuel Macron of France Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Speaking alongside Slovenia’s prime minister Robert Golob, Macron said he would make sure “that what we have negotiated hard for over the last few months is respected”.

“We will be uncompromising on compliance with these rules, because Europe has significantly tightened the rules on our producers in recent years,” Macron added.

“And so I will never defend an agreement that is lax on imports and tough on what we produce at home, because it is inconsistent for European consumers and criminal for European sovereignty,” he said.

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Farmers’ opposition

The deal between the EU and the four founding members of the Mercosur bloc, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, was a quarter-century in the making.

The accord creates one of the world’s biggest free trade zones and eliminates tariffs on more than 90% of trade between the two blocs, which together account for 30% of global GDP and over 700 million consumers.

Farmers across Europe remain unconvinced and are up in arms, including in Spain where they staged a protest against the deal in Madrid earlier this month.

The European Commission, however, insists it has fully addressed their concerns by approving a series of safeguards for its producers.

Von der Leyen stressed the deal offered “countless opportunities”.

She added: “It allows our small and medium-sized businesses to access markets and scale they could only dream of before.”

Major exports from the South American grouping to the EU include agricultural products and minerals, while the 27-country bloc would export machinery, chemicals and pharmaceuticals with smaller levies.