EU/MERCOSUR: Partnership Agreement enters into force
After more than 25 years of negotiations, the Trade Agreement between the European Union and MERCOSUR enters into force in a transitional version. Two regulations, published in the Official Journal of the European Union of 27 February 2026, are a major step forward, including rules of origin, evidence mechanisms and safeguard arrangements for this new partnership.
On Friday 27 February, the European Commission published several Official Journals concerning the entry into force of the EU/MERCOSUR Agreement. Two regulations have ratified an agreement under negotiation for more than 25 years.
Several important points relating to this agreement draw our attention: first, why two publications?
The Interim Trade Agreement (ITA) takes over the modalities of trade and investment liberalization; Its content is reproduced in OJEU 2026/184.
The Global Partnership Agreement (GEPA), which will eventually become the Single Preferential Agreement, OJEU 2026/186, Officializes the provisional application of the Partnership Agreement between the EU and MERCOSUR countries.
With regard to the customs part, each party shall, as in any originating protocol, draw up a list of rules of origin to determine whether a product manufactured in one of the parties will benefit from preferential origin at the time of its export to the other party. This is Chapter 11 for the Interim Trade Agreement and Chapter 3 for the Partnership Agreement.
For EU exporters wishing to validate preferential origin to the Argentine Republic, the Federal Republic of Brazil, the Republic of Paraguay and the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, the proof of origin to be used will be the certificate of origin established through the REX status.
As regards proof of origin for imports into the EU, a provisional measure is in place for the MERCOSUR countries: they will be able to establish preferential origin by means of a certificate of origin referring to the agreement (provisional measures provided for in Annex 11-D to OJEU 2026/186) for a period of 3 to 5 years.
We draw the attention of operators wishing to benefit from this new agreement to two points to be taken into account in implementing the EU/MERCOSUR Agreement:
- Bilateral safeguard measures are included in the texts, in particular on agricultural and automotive products. These measures are intended to protect each party from any injury which would be caused by a massive increase in imports facilitated by the preferential conditions linked to the agreement. They result in tariff quotas which will limit the volume of imports with reduced customs duties; they are planned for a period of 2 years.
- Tariff dismantling of tariffs up to 15 years! As in some new agreements negotiated with the EU, products identified by categories according to their sensitivity may be imported with a rate of customs duty which will be eliminated over a period from today to 2041.
Note that the two decisions officially published on 27/02/26 enter into force on 9 January 2026.
EUROPA