Regarding the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) considered that “it will be necessary to encourage a paradigm shift in companies in the region” and recognized that “productive transformation programs will have to be implemented to assist the most affected sectors in the transition.”
Regarding the access of European industrial goods to the local market, the study by the Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (IDB-Intal) warned that “it will put pressure on companies to compete in the region with European companies, both due to the possible impacts at the national level and due to trade diversions.”
The multilateral financing body indicated that "it will be necessary to undertake reforms to optimize foreign trade logistics, trade facilitation, improve promotion and, in addition to assisting the affected sectors, "generate appropriate incentives and regulatory frameworks to promote competitive sectors, thus reducing the productivity gap with European economies."
The IDB considers that lOr more importantly, what we can do from now on is improve competitiveness. “It will be necessary to encourage a paradigm shift in companies in the region, to help generate the conditions for them to incorporate new technologies, improve their management capabilities, promote innovation processes, follow the best international production practices, adopt international standards of environmental and social sustainability, etc.”
“The agreement opens an opportunity for Mercosur's industrial and service complexes to take a difficult but unavoidable path towards global integration,” “Focusing only on domestic or captive markets within the region is no longer an option,” warns the IDB, which finances private sector participation schemes in Mercosur and an action plan for integration with the Pacific Alliance, one of the objectives of trade negotiations, as outlined by the presidents of the bloc at the last Mercosur Summit.
In its analysis of the Mercosur-EU agreement, the IDB-INTAL points out that the bloc's offensive interest was in agricultural exports. "Although the quotas on certain products of interest to Mercosur do not seem generous, the immediate access gains for other important products in the regional export basket could be substantial," considered the bank chaired by Luis Alberto Moreno.
“Opportunities are also opening up for the industrial sector of Mercosur, since 80% of its exports to the European bloc will immediately have access to zero tariffs and 100% within a maximum period of 10 years,” they stressed. There are “market niches” where Mercosur can be competitive, such as leather, designer clothing or biotechnology.
In the services segment, the multilateral bank notes that “the EU is the world's leading importer of services and currently imports only US$12.400 billion of services from Mercosur, out of a total of US$800 billion that it imports globally.
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