{"id":445949,"date":"2026-02-24T17:01:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T16:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/02\/24\/mercosur-india-e-gli-altri-i-vantaggi-degli-accordi-commerciali-per-lue\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T18:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T17:01:09","slug":"mercosur-india-and-others-the-benefits-of-trade-agreements-for-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/02\/24\/mercosur-india-and-others-the-benefits-of-trade-agreements-for-the-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercosur, India, and others: the benefits of trade agreements for the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Trade agreements are a valuable resource<\/strong>. The new developments in the US tariffs saga <\/strong><\/a>dominate the economic and trade agenda of the twelve stars, but the Commissioner for Trade, Maros Sefcovic<\/strong>, reiterates<\/span> the need to pursue<\/span> as many free trade agreements as possible. This is because they are also a means of defence against the whims of the US president. Signing trade agreements, he explains during a hearing at the International Trade Commission <\/a><\/span> of the European Parliament, is intended to meet the objective of “ensuring that the EU remains competitive and able to secure supply chains in an ever-changing geo-economic landscape<\/strong>.”<\/span> In this agenda, “diversifying our trade is a key element<\/strong> of this commitment.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n
Sefcovic uses the free trade agreement with Mercosur<\/b><\/a> to give an idea of the scope of free trade agreements. “I would like to be more specific: between 2021 and 2025, the EU would have benefited from an additional \u20ac183 billion in exports and \u20ac291 billion in GDP if the agreement had been in force<\/strong>.” That is why, he explains, “the Commission, and I personally, remain committed to ensuring that Mercosur is ratified and implemented quickly.” Given that competitiveness has become the EU’s new priority<\/a>, there is no reason, he points out, to waste any more time: “Every year we lose is a year of lost trade, jobs and economic opportunities<\/strong> that we desperately need for our competitiveness and prosperity.” <\/p>\n
\u200b<\/span><\/span><\/span>The <\/b>free trade agreement with India, which has just been signed<\/span><\/a>, “will help open up the world’s fourth largest economy, traditionally characterised by high tariffs and significant non-tariff barriers, to the EU,” Sefcovic continues.\u200b<\/span> “The agreement liberalises 97 per cent of our trade (from 93 per cent to zero) with four billion euros per year in tariff savings<\/strong>,” he says. Then there is the global economic partnership agreement<\/a> with Indonesia, which offers EU exporters the opportunity to expand and find new markets, “liberalising 98 per cent of trade<\/strong> with Southeast Asia’s largest economy,” for tariff savings of \u20ac600 million<\/strong>.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
According to Sefcovic, these figures indicate the need to continue along this path. The von der Leyen 2 team is therefore committed to concluding free trade agreements with Australia, which<\/strong>, according to Commission estimates<\/a>, could add up to \u20ac3.9 billion to the EU’s GDP by 2030<\/strong>. Thailand and, above all, the Philippines are also in the sights: with the Manila government, \u201cwe hope to finalise the agreement this year<\/b>.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic presents figures showing the benefits of free trade agreements with the rest of the world. “We hope to conclude an agreement with the Philippines this year.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":445926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705],"tags":[31257,26279,25755,29653,30231,32134,25987,26632],"class_list":["post-445949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-trade-en","tag-news-parliament-en","tag-agreements-libero-exchange-en","tag-india-en-2","tag-indonesia-en","tag-maros-sefcovicat","tag-mercosur-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445950,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445949\/revisions\/445950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}