LatinNews Daily - 05 March 2026

*Brazil’s congress has fully approved the free trade agreement signed in January by the European Union (EU) and the Mercosur regional trade bloc. With the senate’s approval yesterday, Brazil joins fellow Mercosur members Argentina and Uruguay in completing the national ratification process for the deal, with the legislatures of both countries approving the deal last week. Meanwhile, Paraguay’s senate approved the deal yesterday, but it still needs to be reviewed in the lower chamber. However, on the same day that Brazil’s congress ratified the agreement, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also made a gesture to appease the country’s industrial sector, signing a decree yesterday to establish a national regulatory framework to implement the safeguard mechanisms outlined in the trade deal. According to a government press release, the EU-Mercosur deal has sections regarding potential surges of imports that could harm a signatory country’s national production, so Lula’s decree seeks to reassure industrial sector lobby groups that the government could take steps to protect these sectors such as temporarily suspending the negotiated tariff reduction schedule.

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