Italy called on Wednesday in a letter to EU's Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen to lift the bloc's carbon border tax in order to ease pressure on fertiliser prices for European farmers. The date for the Mercosur signature is still not clear.
Expectations for Rome to greenlight the trade deal had risen in Brussels after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged on Tuesday to unlock additional funding for farmers to the tune of €45 billion as soon as 2028 in a move designed to sway the pivotal support of the Italian government in favour of the deal.
"If in today's meeting these conditions are certified by the Commission, Italy will support the deal (Mercosur)," Meloni's agriculture minister Francesco Lollobrigida told reporters in Brussels.
Italy's request comes as the Commission convened EU agriculture ministers in Brussels on Wednesday for talks on the future Common Agricultural Policy funding -a key piece of the common budget and highly sensitive to domestic politics - and reciprocity in production standards between Latin America and Europe, a key French demand.
France still opposes the Mercosur deal.
Farmers furious as Mercosur enters final stretch
The Mercosur agreement would create a free-trade area between a swathe of Latin America, including heavyweight economy Brazil, and the EU, cutting tariffs across sectors for European companies while also opening market access to Latin America.
Italian farmers, alongside France, Poland and Ireland, fear the deal with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay will expose them to unfair competition.
Italy’s backing of the deal is essential to reach a qualified majority of member states needed to support it, as opposed to a blocking minority.
A vote scheduled for Friday at a meeting of EU ambassadors could seal the agreement’s fate if Italy backs it, marking a diplomatic failure for France, long at the forefront of opposition to the deal.
Paris is grappling with a deep agricultural crisis, and Rome's call to freeze the EU carbon border tax aligns with a French initiative.
On Wednesday, France also suspended imports of agricultural products containing residues of pesticides banned in the EU. The Commission has ten days to give its green light.
