Italy’s U-Turn Tips the Scales for EU-Mercosur Pact

When France finally backed the 1957 Rome Treaty, it did so only after securing protective farm policies—the birth of the CAP in 1962; six decades later, Italy is leveraging a similar quid-pro-quo to extract budget promises before consenting to a trade pact. The episode echoes NAFTA’s 1993 passage, where last-minute side accords on labour and environment flipped key votes. Structurally, the clash lays bare two century-old forces: Europe’s instinct to shield small farmers that date to post-war reconstruction, and the post-1990 trend toward mega-regional trade blocs competing for supply-chain gravity. Whether the EU-Mercosur zone becomes another stepping-stone toward a fragmented world of rival spheres—or fizzles like the failed 2005 FTAA—will shape market orientation in Latin America and test the EU’s ambition for “open strategic autonomy” well into the next hundred years.