LatinNews Daily - 17 September 2025

*The Mercosur trade bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia has signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Free Trade Association (Efta), comprising Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. The Mercosur-Efta deal, negotiations for which concluded in July, was signed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, Uruguay’s Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin, and Paraguay’s Vice Minister of Economic Relations and Integration Patricia Frutos, as well as representatives from the four Efta countries. According to a joint statement, the FTA will create a free trade zone of almost 300m people and a combined GDP of more than US$4.3tn, while both sides will benefit from improved market access for over 97% of their exports. It states that the FTA will also create new business opportunities, improve market access, modernise regulations on custom clearance, and introduce greater predictability and legal certainty in trade between the member countries. The agreement will cover trade in goods, trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights, government procurement, competition, rules of origin, trade defence, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, legal and horizontal issues including dispute settlement, and a chapter on trade and sustainable development. Mercosur is currently also pursuing FTAs with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the European Union (EU).

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