How EU – Mercosur Deal Affects Romania

After more than 25 years of negotiations, the European Union has provisionally greenlit the EU-Mercosur trade package, paving the way for signature and setting up what could become the bloc’s biggest tariff-cutting agreement to date. On January 9, 2026, EU member states backed the move by qualified majority, giving political momentum to a deal designed to bind Europe closer to South America at a time when global trade is hardening into rival blocs.

The agreement with Mercosur – Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay – still needs the European Parliament’s consent before it can take effect. But the Council’s go-ahead matters: it signals that, despite internal fractures, the EU is willing to pay the political price of freer trade in exchange for strategic access to a vast consumer market, critical raw materials, and a deeper geopolitical footprint in Latin America.

What the EU – Mercosur deal changes

At its core, the EU-Mercosur package sharply lowers trade barriers in both directions. Romania’s President Nicușor Dan said the agreement removes customs duties for 91% of products imported from the EU, with clear upside for exporters in high-tariff categories that have long been penalised in Mercosur markets – transport equipment (especially automotive components), mechanical and electrical devices, metal products and textiles.

For Brussels, the pitch is blunt: open a 270-million-person market, reduce dependence on single-source suppliers, and lock in rules for services and investment. For European industry – cars, machinery, chemicals, pharmaceuticals – this is the kind of market access that boards and export lobbies have been demanding for a decade.

Farmers hit the streets against the deal

The backlash arrived on schedule. On January 10, thousands of Irish farmers protested in Athlone, while demonstrations across the EU have repeatedly targeted the same fear: that Europe’s farm sector will be asked to compete with lower-cost imports produced under different cost structures and, critics argue, weaker enforcement realities.

That anxiety is not abstract. The agreement includes new access for sensitive agricultural products, and even “limited” quotas can become political explosives when margins are tight and rural economies already feel under siege from energy prices, compliance costs, and competition from other import routes.

The EU insists this is not an open-door policy for meat and sugar. The architecture is built around quotas and a bilateral safeguard clause – essentially an emergency brake if import volumes spike or if market disruption threatens EU producers.

On the most sensitive items:

• Beef access is capped, with Mercosur beef entering under preferential conditions within a defined quota, while additional imports face today’s full tariffs.
• Poultry access is also quota-based and phased in, with limits framed as a small share of total EU production.
• The safeguard mechanism is designed to activate even for imports arriving under tariff-rate quotas if the market starts buckling.

Romania’s Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu publicly pushed for tougher triggers, arguing the EU should be able to suspend preferential conditions if import volumes or price impacts cross defined thresholds. The message from Bucharest is clear: Romania may have voted “yes,” but it intends to keep the protective machinery within arm’s reach.

Romania’s bet: industry first, agriculture protected

Bucharest’s calculation is pragmatic. Romania wants the export upside – especially in industrial supply chains – while demanding guardrails for agriculture. President Dan also highlighted another leverage point: geographical indications, with 15 Romanian agricultural products included among the EU names set to be protected in Mercosur markets. For Romanian producers, that is not just branding; it is legal protection against imitation in a region where enforcement can decide whether a premium label holds value or becomes a marketing slogan.

The political risk is domestic. Romanian farmers are already squeezed by cost inflation and competitive pressure in cereals and livestock markets. Adding another import channel – even with quotas – raises the stakes for any government that wants to sell “strategic trade” without triggering rural revolt.

The bottom line

The EU – Mercosur agreement is being sold as growth, resilience, and geopolitics wrapped into a single trade instrument. For Romania, it is an export opportunity with a built-in test: can the state capture industrial upside while proving, in practice – not on paper – that safeguards can be triggered fast enough to protect vulnerable farm sectors?

The deal has cleared one gate in Brussels. The harder vote – politically and socially – has only begun.