Canada hopes to sign Mercosur free-trade deal this year

Canada wants to conclude a free trade agreement with Mercosur before the end of the year as it seeks to diversify its trading partners beyond the United States, Foreign Minister Anita Anand said Tuesday during a visit to Brazil.

In 2025, amid the United States' tariff offensive, Canada and the Mercosur bloc, made up of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, resumed negotiations after several years of deadlock.

"We have agreed to intensify free-trade negotiations with the aim of concluding an agreement with significant commercial impact as soon as possible and ideally before the end of 2026," Anand said after meeting Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira in São Paulo.

"Over the coming decades, we are going to double our non-US trade agreements," Anand added, against a backdrop of heightened trade tensions between Ottawa and Washington.

Brazil, the third-largest economy in the Americas after the United States and Canada, is leading the negotiations on Mercosur's behalf.

"We have already held six rounds of negotiations, which are progressing very well. Only a few details remain to be resolved," Vieira said.

Anand acknowledged that a potential trade agreement with Mercosur has raised 'concerns' within Canada's agricultural sector.

The trade agreement between the South American bloc and the European Union (EU) was delayed for several years because of objections from European farmers, who feared an influx of cheaper Mercosur products produced under less stringent sanitary regulations.

The agreement was ultimately signed in January and entered into provisional force in May, pending ratification by the EU.

– TIMES/AFP