Italy gives key support to fraught EU trade deal with South American nations next to Venezuela

BRUSSELS (AP) — Italy on Friday gave crucial support to plans by the European Union to seal a huge free trade deal with five South American nations neighboring Venezuela that has been negotiated for over 25 years.

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was long seen as the key vote in the campaign by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to rally support for the trade deal with the Mercosur nations of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Von der Leyen could now potentially sign the deal next week during a meeting in Paraguay. European Parliament will vote on it before it enters into force.

Italy confirmed its support for the deal on Friday, with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani hailing it as "good news for Italy.”

“This agreement is destined to boost our exports, with the goal of reaching 700 billion euros in exports," Tajani wrote in a post on X. He acknowledged the deal required a long negotiation, but added that Italy had secured protections for its farmers, "especially regarding production standards.”

Meloni said at a press conference on Friday she never had “any ideological objections” to the Mercosur agreement.

"We have always said we will be in favor of it when there are sufficient guarantees for our farmers,” she said. “The agreement’s potential is good, but not at the expense of the excellence of our products.”

The deal would create one of the world's largest free trade zones, covering some 780 million people from Uruguay to Romania and a quarter of the globe’s gross domestic product.

It also give Brussels a diplomatic win at a time of economic upheaval, providing a stark counterpoint to the gunboat diplomacy of Washington and the coercive export controls of Beijing.

A delay in December to the signing of the deal had infuriated Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and led experts to worry a last-minute stumble would wreck the EU's credibility.

Opposition to the deal was led by France and Poland, with riled-up farmers flooding streets and blocking roads with tractors from Brussels to Athens. Austria, Hungary and Ireland also voted against it.

Ireland's Prime Minister Micheal Martin said on Thursday in Shanghai during a state visit to China that “we don't have confidence that (Irish farmers) wouldn't be undercut by that,” according to Irish public broadcaster RTE.

Both Martin and French President Emmanuel Macron said that internal negotiations sparked by the political furor surrounding the deal had led to reforms that better protect European farmers. But they acknowledged such reforms were not enough to overcome domestic political pressure.

Posting on X on Thursday, Macron said three of France's key demands were now being met: New safeguards to an “emergency brake” of imports if they are found to undercut EU prices by 5% or more; the mirroring of EU food safety regulations in the Mercosur bloc; and an increase of inspections of agrifood imports at EU ports and beyond.

Still, Macron said the potential economic gains of the Mercosur deal are limited and do not justify the risks it poses to EU agriculture. His office stated that the deal would only add 77 billion euros ($89.7 billion) by 2040 — half a percent of the EU's GDP.

Green members of European Parliament had vowed to take the Commission to court over the deal. They said the agreement would accelerate deforestation in the Amazon and weaken the EU's climate targets.

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Zampano reported from Rome. Sylvie Corbet contributed from Paris.