EU trade with Latin America and the Caribbean : overview and figures : in-depth analysis

Collectively, the 33 countries forming the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) are the EU's fifth largest trading partner. On trade, the EU has fully fledged agreements with two Latin American groupings (Cariforum and the Central America group), a multiparty trade agreement with three countries of the Andean Community (Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru), and agreements with Mexico and Chile that are in the process of being modernised. A new agreement with Cuba has been provisionally applied since November 2017, although its trade provisions are not as comprehensive as those of some of the other agreements. The EU's ongoing longstanding negotiations with Mercosur on an association agreement build on existing bilateral and inter-regional framework agreements with both Mercosur and its individual members. The EU's agreements governing trade relations with Latin American and Caribbean subgroupings and individual countries differ considerably in terms of coverage and methodology, depending on the time at which they were concluded and the backdrop to the negotiations. The EU now aims to modernise the trade pillars of its agreements with Mexico (an 'agreement in principle' was reached in April 2018) and Chile (ongoing negotiations) in order to align them to the current standards of EU FTAs. In addition, the EU and Mercosur intend to finish their negotiations on a comprehensive agreement governing trade relations before the end of 2018. If they succeed, the EU would have comprehensive agreements governing trade relations with nearly all of Latin America and the Caribbean (with the exception of Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela).