Trump factor injecting urgency into talks

Mercosur is an abbreviation of Mercado Común del Sur, or Southern Common Market. It comprises Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and the currently suspended Venezuela.

Founded in 1991, it is Latin America’s largest and rather fractious trading bloc. It encompasses more than 250m people and accounts for more than three-quarters of the economic activity on the continent. It has ambitions to become a common market along the lines of the European Union, of which it is four times the size.

Plans for a Mercosur-EU deal date back to a co-operation agreement signed in 1995. Talks began in earnest in 2000. Since then, 28 rounds of negotiations have been held, interspersed with various impasses that have lasted for years.

Talks resumed in May 2016, with both sides expressing a desire to “move quickly to conclude negotiations”.

Mercosur’s drive for an agreement has gained further impetus, due to the increased uncertainty surrounding their — traditionally very strong — trade links with the United States, since Donald Trump became president.

There is now expectation that, after almost two decades of negotiations, Mercosur and the European Union may sign some sort of preliminary agreement during the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Buenos Aires in December.