Uruguay: Six Months into the Mercosur-EU Agreement (ITA) - A Positive Export Balance

On Sunday, November 1, six months passed since the entry into force of the Interim Trade Agreement between Mercosur and the European Union (ITA), and here is the balance of Uruguay's export figures for the first 5 months.

Uruguay's Exports to the European Union, May to September 2026

While the global exports of Uruguay fell 1.5% in the May-September 2026 period, its sales to the European market moved in the opposite direction. According to the Uruguayan government, goods worth US$ 860 million were exported to the European Union, a 12% year-on-year increase during the first five months of the Mercosur-EU agreement, although of that total, barely US$ 38 million were effectively channeled under the treaty. The rest reached its destination through pre-existing routes: zero tariffs consolidated before the agreement, such as those on cellulose pulp, and WTO MFN quotas and other preferential instruments such as the Hilton quota, which were already operating independently of the new bilateral architecture. This overlap of instruments (bilateral agreement, multilateral quotas, pre-existing zero tariffs) creates a complexity that, as Uruguay's Ministry of Economy and Finance warns, requires a period of maturation and learning on the part of operators.

The most encouraging finding from a diversification perspective is the incipient emergence of new categories: orange juice, fresh blueberries and bakery products recorded their first transactions under the preferential scheme. The volumes are still marginal, but their presence confirms that the mechanism is being explored beyond the traditional sectors. In terms of destination geography, the merchandise entered mainly through the Netherlands, given its structural role as a continental point of entry, with relevant secondary flows to Germany, Spain, Portugal and Italy, out of a total of 17 destination countries within the bloc.

Implications for Argentina and the Learning Curve

The Uruguayan experience and its lessons are directly applicable to the Argentine case. A free trade agreement does not automatically generate benefits for companies; rather, it provides a framework that opens up opportunities, which require investment in detailed studies of each market and an analysis of the best tools to use.

If you have any questions about the best strategy for accessing the European market with your products, write to me.

Sources

1. Ministry of Economy and Finance of Uruguay — Six months of the Mercosur-EU agreement: preliminary assessment of performance (November 1, 2026)
2. La Gaceta — Uruguayan exports to the European Union rose 12% (November 2026)