Europe closes in on fresh deal as US President Trump puts up barriers

Europe is approaching the next stop in its global market-opening drive aimed at countering US President Donald Trump’s protectionist tilt. Top officials from the EU will meet with the Mercosur group of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay on January 30 in Brussels to gauge the prospects for a free-trade deal that would follow groundbreaking commercial pacts with Japan and Canada. The EU-Mercosur talks began almost two decades ago, faltered and were re-started in 2010.
 
With EU-Mercosur trade worth almost ^85 billion ($105 billion) in 2016, a market-opening agreement would be among Europe’s biggest. Mercosur says an EU offer to open further its agricultural markets, including for beef, is inadequate.