South America's Mercosur countries gathered for their semi-annual summit in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, July 2 and Thursday, July 3. But they were only able to recall the significance of the agreement signed at the end of 2024 between four of its members – Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay – and the European Commission, which is responsible for trade policy.

The reason behind the limited scope of action: the treaty has still not been submitted to member states and the European Parliament for ratification. The text has already been translated into legal language, and the European Commission was planning to publish its legislative proposal on Monday, June 30. However, Brussels ultimately backed down, as the issue carries major political risks.

On Wednesday, Brazilian President Lula da Silva once again expressed his confidence that he would sign the agreement with the European Union (EU) "during [his] term as president of Mercosur," which had just begun and is set to conclude at the end of the year. "It will be the largest trade agreement in history, with 722 million people across the two blocs and a gross industrial product of $27 trillion [€22.965 trillion]," he argued.

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