The Latest Breaking News from Mercosur

The EU faces three key issues this week: Ukraine peace talks and making sure Europe gets a say at Trump's table, an unprecedented financial operation to issue a reparations loan facing retaliation from Moscow, and getting the Mercosur deal done. The end result of any of the three is unclear.

France wants to delay member states’ vote on the agreement amid mounting farmer anger. But the EU executive says a shifting global geoeconomic landscape makes the deal urgent.

Forty-four French farmers’ organisations have signed an open letter urging President Emmanuel Macron to “clarify” France’s stance and take action to block the South American Mercosur trade agreement, which they regard as both unfair and even dangerous.

The European Union has unveiled proposals to protect farmers from being undercut by imports from South America

Costa Rica sees the Indo-Pacific area as a priority over other regional trade deals, such as EU-Mercosur. An Indo-Pacific trade group, the CPTPP, could become the largest trading bloc in terms of GDP if new members — such as the EU — join.

Countries in the South American Mercosur bloc have signed a free trade deal with Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland

In this edition of our weekly politics show, we break down the security guarantees for Ukraine, the EU-Mercosur trade deal and the political instability in France.

The European Commission has formally endorsed the long-debated trade agreement with the South American Mercosur trade bloc, hailing it as a chance to open up new markets for European exporters while promising fresh safeguards for farmers.

The EU put forward a huge trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur for approval by member countries Wednesday, reassuring chief critic France it came with "robust" safeguards to protect farmers.