Despite protectionist temptations on the planet, the European Union has unwavering confidence in free trade. While the horizon is clarified for the commercial agreement between Europe and the South American countries of Mercosur, which Brussels hopes to see in force at the end of the year, farmers are being mobilized once again these days in the call of the Fensea so that their voices are heard, opponents from the beginning to the beginning of the reduction of the barriers of customs in Argentine products, Uruguayan and Brazil.
The European Union is not a rookie in terms of free trade: Europeans have already signed around forty trade agreements that cover 80 countries of the world today. In addition to the broad treaty with Canada, other trade agreements have successively entered the force during the last ten years, sometimes accompanied by a political dimension. South Korea (2015) was followed by Georgia (2016), Moldova (2016), Ukraine (2017), Japan (2019), Singapore (2019), Vietnam (2020), the United Kingdom after Brexit (2021) or New Zealand (2024).
The EU and Indonesia announced last Tuesday that the conclusion of its long negotiations began in 2016, racing the way for the signing of a commercial agreement between Europe and the largest economy in Southeast Asia. On the Brussels side, more than ever convinced of the force of free trade against Donald Trump’s customs offensive, time is not a deceleration. Beyond the burning archive of Mercosur, other commercial partners still remain in the negotiation table, particularly on the side of Asia-Pacific.
• India
After a tumultuous diplomatic game of “Yes, but not” that it has lasted almost twenty years, India and the European Union now say they are determined to conclude a commercial agreement by the end of the year: if it materialized, it would be one of the most important free trade agreements that ever signed in the world. Although India is asked to become the third economy of the world by 2030, the EU is convinced that they have much to gain from said commercial agreement, which could open the doors of the Indian market to their cars or agricultural products.
The beginning of the negotiations for a free trade agreement had occurred in 2007, but the discussions, complicated, had been suspended in 2013. In 2021, at a summit in Portugal, the Indians and Europeans gave themselves a second chance to trust negotiations in a free trade agreement, adding a second agreement on investments and a third agreement on geographical indications. The negotiations continued trampling, until the return of Donald Trump, who forced the two parties to give an accelerator.
Brussels and New Delhi, however, struggle to agree on agricultural food, industrial products or intellectual property, especially because India is a very protectionist country. The narrow links between India and Russia, particularly for the purchase of Russian oil, more seriously complicate discussions with Brussels.
• Southeast Asia
In the 2000s, discussions were initiated between the European Union and the Southeast Asian Nations Association (ASEAN), which brought together a dozen Asian countries, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia or Cambodia. In the absence of concrete advances, Europeans had finally preferred to negotiate bilateral agreements separated with the various interested countries, one after another. After Singapore, a free trade agreement with Vietnam entered into force in 2020: it will eliminate 99% of the customs tariffs of the goods by 2030.
As with India, negotiations have now accelerated with Southeast Asia. Released in 2010 and then interrupted in 2012, negotiations with Malaysia were officially relaunched in January 2025.
According to the Prime Minister of Malaysia, such an agreement between Brussels and Kuala Lumpur could promote palm oil exports and electronic products to the EU.
In addition, the discussions were relaunched with Thailand in 2023, initiated in 2013, had been suspended the following year due to the military in the country, for which a new cycle of negotiations in Brussels is being programmed next week. At the same time, the negotiations were also relaunched with the Philippines last October, after seven years of interruption.
• Australia
In 2018, Member States had given green light to the opening of negotiations with New Zealand and Australia. For the first, the file advanced without incident and concluded with the entry into force of a free trade agreement on May 1, 2024, eliminating or considerably reducing customs tasks between the EU and the Oceanian archipelago. In the second case, the road is more chaotic. Brussels and Canberra are struggling to find a common land, Australia even announced that he retires from negotiations in October 2023. There is no recovery on the agenda.
As with Latin America, Australian agricultural productions (sugar and beef, among others) awaken a certain distrust of Europe: the point of view is significantly the same in Australia. However, Europeans are considering the rich Australian deposits of strategic minerals, necessary for the manufacture of wind turbines or batteries for electric vehicles, in order to reduce their dependence on China and Russia.
• United Arab Emirates
In 1990, the EU began negotiations with the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar) for a free trade agreement between the two blocks, but had been arrested in 2008. Bilateral discussions were officially launched in the last month of May with the United Arab Emirates. The negotiators “were able to begin to agree on a text where the approaches of both sides converge,” the European Commission said last week after the second negotiation cycle.
Beyond customs tasks on goods, Brussels and Abu Dhabi hopes to take advantage of the important opportunities for trade and investment “in advanced sectors”, such as artificial intelligence, renewable energies, space or logistics, a press release of the European Commission during the launch of negotiations with the United Arab Emirates.
Source: BFM TV
