The European Union (EU) and Mercosur

Résumé du document

“The objectives of this Agreement shall be to strengthen existing relations between the Parties and to prepare the conditions enabling an inter-regional association to be created. To those ends, the Agreement covers trade and economic matters, cooperation regarding integration and other fields of mutual interest.” Here are the objectives put forward in 1995 by the Inter-regional framework cooperation Agreement that still shapes the relations between the European Union and Mercosur. As it is highlighted, the main ambition seemed to promote favorable conditions for a greater integration and trade liberalization with a view to ultimately developing the first inter-regional association and a top-world free trade area. Since its creation in 1991 by the Asuncion Treaty, Mercosur – which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and since recently, Venezuela - has thus highly benefited from the European Commission's support to bolster up its economic and commercial projects as well as to clarify its institutional framework.

Extraits

[...] In spite of shared values and common interests especially towards the American attitude in this area - the EU/Mercosur relations seem at first glance confined to a mere meandering economic and commercial partnership all the more so since their trade differences can impede the political and institutional dialogue. First of all, it should be noted that Mercosur still widely differs from the EU. The myriad of historical hindrances notwithstanding, the EU is nowadays structured by a real political system based upon a double principle of federal economic integration and confederal politic cooperation. Whatever the complexity of this system, it keeps on innovating politically and institutionally. [...]

[...] There have undeniably been major changes in the political and economic context since the negotiations started. Both Parties see advantage in such a process that enables them in particular to secure an important access to a wide external market. Indeed, even if its integration is still incomplete, the Mercosur customs union has already enabled the free circulation for 88% of goods and services within the zone. Similarly, a common external tariff has been instituted. It would therefore seem that the EU/Mercosur relations follow a strict economic and commercial path without imagining a broader horizon. [...]

[...] Initially focused on economic and trade exchanges, this partnership has indeed gradually enclosed new domains, through which the EU has been trying to diffuse its normative values and its model of governance. Therefore, such a relation permits to reconsider EU's identity in the light of its behaviour. This Civilian Power notably seeks to impose implicitly its way of envisioning the international order, which would be based upon multi- regionalism. The current political horizon –with the semi-failure of American unilateralism might lead to think that geopolitical trends point in this direction. However, it depends on the EU capability to bolster its normative values through regional arrangements. [...]

[...] For instance, technical help was developed in the field of agriculture, customs and technical norms. By conferring to Mercosur the means to emerge on the world stage, the EU is fostering its conception of international relations based upon integrated regional areas. Nevertheless, this new inter-regionalism actually seems to consist in a mere “trade multilateralism” that primarily benefits to the EU. One should hence wonder whether this is a new form of “soft imperialism”[2], a “soft power applied in a hard way, that is an asymmetric form of dialogue or even the imposition or strategic use of norms and conditionalities enforced for reason of self-interest rather than for the creation of a genuine interregional dialogue.” The 1995 agreement bolstered a triple idea: political dialogue, cooperation, investments and trade. [...]

[...] However, Mercosur shares with the EU the ambition of an international order ruled by multilateralism and a common attitude vis-à-vis the US oscillating between automatic alignment and, if not confrontation, sheer antipathy. The 1995 US project to create a Free Area of Americas (FTAA) has been widely considered by South American states as a new resurgence of the US imperialism on the Americas, historically depicted by the Monroe doctrine and by the cold war period. Indeed, FTAA has been seen to promote an asymmetric model of negotiations between North and South. Therefore, they started strengthening their relations with the EU to establish a counterweight to US dominance. [...]