Overview
- The agreement’s commercial pillar, which took effect Friday, cuts many tariffs to zero and opens limited quotas for priority farm goods.
- Full ratification waits on a Court of Justice review requested by the European Parliament in January, a process expected to take 18 to 24 months before any final vote.
- Because Mercosur has not set 2026 quota shares, several EU contingents will be granted on a first‑come, first‑served basis for products such as beef, poultry, pork, dairy, sugar, maize, rice, honey and ethanol.
- Argentina issued Resolutions 50/2026 and 53/2026 to run export certificates and licenses through SACME, SIACE and the VUCEA portal, and it kept the 29,389‑ton Hilton beef quota framework in place through 2030.
- EU draft safeguards for 24 agricultural products and strict traceability rules like the deforestation law could curb gains, even as private estimates project Argentine exports to the EU rising from about $8.5 billion in 2025 to roughly $15.1 billion by 2030.