Brussels,

Agricultural Relations with Americas

The European Union’s agricultural relations with the region are broad, commercially important, and highly differentiated from country to country. Rather than presenting a single framework for the whole hemisphere, the page maps the EU’s agri-food ties across a set of major partners and regional blocs, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Andean countries, Central America, Chile, and Mercosur. Taken together, these relationships combine mature bilateral trade links, long-standing agreements, modernisation processes, and, in some cases, still-pending ratification steps.

Agricultural Relations with USA

The United States remains one of the EU’s top agricultural trade partners. The page presents the transatlantic relationship as both commercially dense and politically sensitive. The US is a major destination for high-value EU products such as wines and spirits, beer, chocolate, cheese, olive oil, and fruit and vegetable preparations, while the EU is an important market for US exports including nuts, soybeans, animal feed, wheat, wines and spirits, and fruit, nuts, and spices. The EU’s main agri-food priorities in its relationship with the US are clearly identified: improving access to the American market for products such as dairy, processed meat products, sugar confectionery, chocolate and olive oil, ensuring high sanitary and phytosanitary standards, and protecting geographical indications (GIs). The page also shows that EU-US agricultural trade is governed by a dense patchwork of sectoral agreements rather than one single comprehensive agri-food accord, including arrangements on high-quality beef, organic products, bananas, wine, cereals, rice, sanitary measures, and spirituous beverages, with the most recent listed agreement dating from 2023. (Agriculture and rural development)

Agriculture Relations with Canada

With Canada, the page presents a more structured and conventional trade relationship. Canada is described as an important agricultural partner for the EU, with European exports led above all by alcoholic beverages, especially wine, spirits and beer, followed by chocolate, sugar confectionery, cereal preparations, and cheese. In the opposite direction, Canada is an important supplier of wheat, soya beans, oilseeds such as rapeseed, and some fruit and vegetables, including beans, lentils and peas. The central legal framework is CETA, which has applied provisionally since September 2017 but still requires ratification by all EU member states. The Commission page highlights two practical gains from CETA for agriculture: tariff reduction and the protection of geographical indications for a number of EU agri-food products. (Agriculture and rural development)

Agriculture Relations with Mexico

The Mexico section is presented as a case of ongoing modernisation. According to the page, political negotiations to modernise the EU’s Global Agreement with Mexico concluded in January 2025, and on 3 September 2025 the European Commission submitted proposals to the Council for the signature and conclusion of the EU-Mexico Modernised Global Agreement. The agricultural relevance of the deal is substantial because Mexico is described as a net importer of EU agri-food products, meaning the agreement is expected to generate new commercial opportunities for European farmers and food exporters. The page highlights three practical effects: the removal of tariffs of up to 100% on products such as cheese, poultry, pork, pasta, apples, jams, marmalades, chocolate and wine; the expansion of GI protection to 568 European products; and simpler procedures intended to make agri-food exports quicker and cheaper. In other words, the Mexico file is framed not only as a political update, but as a market-opening instrument with direct implications for EU agri-food competitiveness. (Agriculture and rural development)

Agriculture Relations with Andean Countries

The section on the Andean countries shows a trade relationship that is already well established and clearly favourable to Andean agricultural exports into Europe. The EU has a comprehensive trade agreement with Colombia and Peru, provisionally applied since 2013, and Ecuador joined in 2017. The page also notes that the agreement protects 116 EU geographical indications, alongside several GIs from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In commercial terms, the balance is described as being in favour of the Andean countries, which supply the EU with major agricultural products such as bananas, other fruit, vegetables, coffee, cocoa beans, and cut flowers. EU exports have been growing since the agreement began to apply and consist mainly of food preparations, spirits and liqueurs, vegetable, fruit and nut preparations, olive oil, infant food, and wine. This section presents the Andean relationship as a good example of how preferential trade can reinforce Latin American access to the EU while also supporting rising EU exports of higher-value processed products. (Agriculture and rural development)

Agriculture Relations with Central America

For Central America, the page underlines that trade has traditionally centred on coffee and banana imports into the EU, but that the relationship has broadened under the EU-Central America Association Agreement, signed in June 2012. This agreement increased market access on both sides and created specific opportunities for EU exports, especially in wine and spirits, as well as dairy and meat. It also established the concept of geographical indications in the domestic law of all six Central American countries, which reinforced the position of EU quality products in those markets. For Central American partners, the agreement consolidated the earlier GSP+ regime and added tariff-rate quotas for products such as sugar and rum. The banana sector also benefited from a gradually reduced preferential tariff, reaching EUR 75 per tonne in 2020. The main EU imports from the region are tropical fruit, nuts and spices, coffee, tea, palm and palm-kernel oils, vegetable products, and bulbs, roots and live plants, while EU exports include spirits and liqueurs, infant food, preparations of vegetables, fruits and nuts, malt, and wine-related products. (Agriculture and rural development)

Agriculture Relations with SADC EPA Group

The SADC EPA Group adds another important layer to the ACP relationship. In June 2016, the EU signed an EPA with Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Eswatini, while Angola retains the option to join later. This agreement covers a wide range of agricultural trade flows. The EU imports products such as beef from Botswana, fish from Namibia, sugar from Eswatini, and fruit and wine from South Africa, while exporting to the region spirits, poultry products, vegetable oils, wheat, and other cereals. The SADC framework is one of the clearest examples of how the EU’s agricultural relations with ACP countries are tied to differentiated regional production structures and export specialisations. (Agriculture and rural development)

Agriculture Relations with Chile

The Chile section describes a relationship that is already governed by the EU-Chile Association Agreement, concluded in 2002 and in force since February 2003, but that is now moving toward a more modern framework. The page explains that the future Interim Free Trade Agreement (iFTA) and the Advanced Framework Agreement (AFA) are intended to replace the current arrangement, and that the Council approved them on 4 December 2023, with signature by both sides on 13 December 2023, while ratification is still ongoing. Commercially, Chile is portrayed as a minor destination for EU agricultural exports but a significant supplier of imports to the EU, especially for fruit, nuts, and wine. Chilean exports to the EU include vegetables and vegetable preparations, grapes, apples, pears, tropical fruits, wines, vinegar-related products, nuts, and fruit juices, while EU exports to Chile include beer, food preparations, fruit and vegetable preparations, spirits and liqueurs, cheese, pasta, pastry, biscuits, bread, and animal feedstuffs. Once the modernised agreements enter into force, the Chilean market is expected to open further for EU products such as cereals, cheese, dairy, and vegetable oils, while also expanding GI protection: the page says the new agreements will protect 216 key EU agri-food GIs, in addition to the 1,573 wines and 235 spirit drinks and aromatised wines already protected under the current framework. (Agriculture and rural development)

Agriculture Relations with Mercosur

The Mercosur section is one of the most politically and commercially significant parts of the page. Mercosur countries — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and suspended-member Venezuela — are described as major suppliers of agricultural goods to the EU. The main product categories imported from Mercosur include oilcakes, soya beans, coffee, tea, bovine meat, and fruit juices. The page also singles out Argentina as a major supplier of bovine meat, and Brazil as a key exporter of poultry meat, sugar, and ethanol. EU exports to Mercosur are led by olive oil, spirits and liqueurs, vegetable preparations, wine and vermouth, and cider and vinegar. On the policy side, the page states that on 6 December 2024 the EU concluded an agreement in principle with the four founding Mercosur countries — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — strengthening the sustainability dimension of the preliminary 2019 deal. It further notes that on 3 September 2025 the Commission submitted proposals to the Council for the signature and conclusion of the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement. According to the Commission’s presentation, the agreement would reduce high tariffs on major EU exports such as wine and spirits, chocolate, and olive oil, protect 344 EU geographical indications, simplify food-safety procedures for EU exporters, and still provide full protection for EU agricultural sensitivities. The page therefore frames Mercosur as both a major source of imports and a potentially large growth market for European agri-food exports. (Agriculture and rural development)



Taken as a whole, the EU’s agricultural relationship with Americas is as a mix of market access, defensive interests, GI protection, and selective liberalisation.

In North America, the EU is dealing with advanced markets where standards, quotas, and sector-specific arrangements remain central. In Latin America, the emphasis is often on preferential access, regional agreements, and the balance between import competition and new export opportunities for EU food products.

Across nearly all cases, three priorities recur: widening access for EU agri-food exports, defending European quality schemes and GIs, and managing trade in sensitive sectors such as beef, dairy, wine, bananas, sugar, and processed foods. The page therefore shows that the EU’s agricultural ties with the Americas are not just large in volume, but also highly strategic in terms of trade policy design and sectoral interests. (Agriculture and rural development)