EU delays massive free-trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is delaying a massive free-trade deal with South American countries after fiery protests by farmers and last-minute opposition by France and Italy threatened to derail the pact, seen by its backers as an important geopolitical move for both continents.

Top EU officials had hoped to sign the EU-Mercosur deal in Brazil this weekend, after 26 years of negotiations. Instead, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday after a tense EU summit that the signature will be delayed ‘’a few extra weeks to address some issues with member states.''

Experts say the delay could dent the EU’s negotiating credibility globally as it seeks to forge new trade ties amid commercial tensions with the U.S. and China. Once ratified, the trade deal would cover a market of 780 million people and a quarter of the globe’s gross domestic product, and progressively remove duties on almost all goods traded between the two blocs.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the postponement, as did French farmers unions, who fear the deal would undercut their livelihoods. France had led opposition to the deal between the EU and the five active Mercosur countries — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. Italy raised new reservations Wednesday.

Thursday's agreement for a delay was reached between von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa on the sidelines of the EU summit with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, on the condition that Italy would vote in favor of the agreement in January, an EU official said.

The decision came hours after farmers in tractors blocked roads and set off fireworks in Brussels to protest the trade deal, prompting police to respond with tear gas and water cannons.

The farmers brought potatoes and eggs to throw and waged a furious back-and-forth with police. Protesters burned tires and a faux wooden coffin bearing the word “Agriculture.” Their fire unleashed a black cloud that swirled with white tear gas. The European Parliament evacuated some staff due to damage caused by protesters.

“We are fighting to defend our jobs,” said Armand Chevron, a 23-year old French farmer.

Hundreds of farmers like Pierre Vromann, 60, had arrived on tractors, which they parked to block roads around the key institutions of the EU.

The Mercosur deal would be “bad for farmers, bad for consumers, bad for citizens and bad for Europe,” said Vromann, who raises cattle and grains in the nearby Belgian city of Waterloo.

Other farmers came from as far away as Spain and Poland.

Macron dug in against the deal upon arrival at Thursday's summit, and wouldn't commit to supporting the deal next month either. He said he has been in discussions with Italian, Polish, Belgian, Austrian and Irish colleagues among others about delaying it to address farmers' concerns.

“Farmers already face an enormous amount of challenges,″ he said, as farmer protests over the trade deal and a cattle disease roil regions around France. “We cannot sacrifice them to this accord.”

Worried by a surging far right that rallies support by criticizing the deal, Macron's centrist government has demanded safeguards to monitor and stop large economic disruption in the EU, increased regulations in the Mercosur nations like pesticide restrictions, and more inspections of imports at EU ports.

Italy's Meloni also warned against signing the agreement this week.

“Work is underway to postpone the Mercosur summit, which gives us a few more weeks to try to provide the answers our farmers are asking for, the safeguards that are necessary for our products, and thus enable us to approve the Mercosur agreement,'' she said early Friday.

Von der Leyen needs the backing of at least two-thirds of EU nations to secure the deal. Italy’s opposition would give France enough votes to veto von der Leyen’s signature.

In Greece, farmers have set up roadblocks along highways across the country for weeks, protesting delays in agricultural subsidy payments as well as high production costs and low product prices that they say are strangling their sector and making it impossible to make ends meet.

Supporters say the EU-Mercosur deal would offer a clear alternative to Beijing's export controls and Washington's tariff blitzkrieg, while detractors say it will undermine both environmental regulations and the EU's iconic agricultural sector.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said ahead of the Brussels summit, “If the European Union wants to remain credible in global trade policy, then decisions must be made now.''

The deal is also about strategic competition between Western nations and China over Latin America, said Agathe Demarais, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “A failure to sign the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement risks pushing Latin American economies closer to Beijing’s orbit,” she said.

The political tensions that have marked Mercosur in recent years — especially between Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei and Brazil’s center-left Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the bloc’s two main partners — have not deterred South American leaders from pursuing an alliance with Europe that will benefit their agricultural sectors.

Lula has been one of the most fervent promoters of the agreement. He was betting on closing the deal Saturday and scoring a major diplomatic achievement ahead of next year’s general elections. He said he was surprised by Italy’s hesitancy.

At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Lula was clearly irked by Italy and France's positions.

“If we don't do it now, Brazil won't make any more agreements while I'm president,” Lula said, adding that the agreement would “defend multilateralism” as Trump pursues unilateralism.

Milei, a close ideological ally of Trump, also supports the deal.

“We must stop thinking of Mercosur as a shield that protects us from the world and start thinking of it as a spear that allows us to effectively penetrate global markets,” he said some time ago.

Associated Press writers Debora Rey in Buenos Aires, Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Elene Becatoros in Athens, Gabriela Sá Pessoa in Sao Paulo, and Sylvain Plazy and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

A protestor sits on a curb injured during a demonstration of European farmers near the European Parliament in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)

Police try to disperse protestors during a demonstration of European farmers near the European Parliament in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)

A protestor picks up tire to throw onto a fire during a demonstration of European farmers outside the EU Summit meeting in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)

Protestors burn tires during a demonstration of European farmers outside the EU Summit meeting in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks with the media as he arrives for the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

A fire burns in a barrel as European farmers block a road with their tractors during a demonstration outside the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)

Police stand behind a barrier as European farmers block a road with their tractors during a demonstration outside the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks with the media as she arrives for the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

A farmer drives a tractor with a sign that reads in Dutch 'Don't forget, without farmers there's no food' during a demonstration outside a gathering of European leaders at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)

Farmers drive their tractors to block a main boulevard during a demonstration outside a gathering of European leaders at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)

A farmer puts wood in a fire during a demonstration outside the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Protestors and farmers stand next to a wood fire during a demonstration outside the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Farmers use their tractors to block a main road during a demonstration outside a gathering of European leaders at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

NEW YORK (AP) — Kamala Harris “wrote off rural America" during the 2024 presidential campaign and failed to attack Donald Trump with sufficient “negative firepower," according to a long-awaited post-election autopsy released on Thursday by the Democratic National Committee.

The committee's chair, Ken Martin, shared the 192-page report only after facing intense internal pressure from frustrated Democratic operatives concerned with his leadership. Martin had originally promised to release the autopsy, only to keep it under wraps for months because he was concerned it would be a distraction ahead of the midterms as Democrats mobilize to take back control of Congress.

On Tuesday, Martin apologized for his handling of the situation and conceded that the report was withheld because it “was not ready for primetime."

Although the autopsy criticizes Democrats' focus on “identity politics,” it sidesteps some of the most controversial elements of the 2024 campaign. The report does not address former President Joe Biden’s decision to seek reelection, the rushed selection of Harris to replace him on the ticket or the party's acrimonious divide over the war in Gaza.

“I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards,” Martin wrote in an essay on Substack on Thursday. “I don’t endorse what’s in this report, or what’s left out of it. I could not in good faith put the DNC’s stamp of approval on it. But transparency is paramount.”

A spokesperson for Harris did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The initial reaction from Democratic operatives was a mix of bafflement and anger over Martin's handling of the situation.

“Why not say this in 2024, or bring in more people to finish it, instead of turning this into the dumbest media cycle for 7-8 months?” Democratic strategist Steve Schale wrote on social media.

The postelection report, which was authored by Democratic consultant Paul Rivera, calls for “a renewed focus on the voters of Middle America and the South, who have come to believe they are not included in the Democratic vision of a stronger and more dynamic America for everyone.”

“Millions of Americans are suffering from poor access to healthcare, manufacturing and job losses, and a failing infrastructure, yet continue to be persuaded to vote against their best interests because they do not see themselves reflected in the America of the Democratic Party,” the report says.

The autopsy points to a reduction in support and training for Democratic state parties, voter registration shifts and “a persistent inability or unwillingness to listen to all voters.”

Thursday's release comes as Martin confronts a crisis of confidence among party officials who are increasingly concerned about the health of their political machine barely a year into his term. Some Democratic operatives have had informal discussions about recruiting a new chair, even though most believe that Martin’s job wasn't in serious jeopardy ahead of the midterm elections.

The report found that Harris and her allies failed to focus enough on Trump's negatives, especially his felony convictions. This was part of a broader criticism that Democrats' messaging is too focused on reason and winning arguments, “even in cycles when the electorate is defined by rage.”

“There was a decision in the 2024 Democratic leadership not to engage in negative advertising at the scale required,” the report states. “The Trump campaign and supportive Super PACs went full throttle against Vice President Harris, but there was not sufficient or similar negative firepower directed at Trump by Democrats.”

The report continues: “It was essential to prosecute a more effective case as to why Trump should have been disqualified from ever again taking office. The grounds were there, but the messaging did not make the case.”

Trump's attack on Harris' transgender policies were cited as a key contrast.

Specifically, the report suggested the Democratic nominee was “boxed” in by the Trump campaign's “very effective” ad that highlighted Harris' previous statement of support for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgeries for prison inmates.

Democratic pollsters believed that “if the Vice President would not change her position – and she did not – then there was nothing which would have worked as a response," the report said.

The report criticized Harris' outreach to key segments of America while condemning the party's focus on “identity politics.”

“Harris wrote off rural America, assuming urban/suburban margins would compensate. The math doesn’t work,” the report says. “You can’t lose rural areas by overwhelming margins and make it up elsewhere when rural voters are a significant share of the electorate. If Democrats are to reclaim leadership in the Heartland or the South, candidates must perform well in rural turf. Show up, listen, and then do it again.”

The report also references Democrats' underperformance with male voters of color.

“Male voters require direct engagement. The gender gap can be narrowed. Deploy male messengers, address economic concerns, and don’t assume identity politics will hold male voters of color,” it says.

President Donald Trump speaks during an event about loosening a federal refrigerant rule, in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Former Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a fireside chat on Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

FILE - Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at DNC headquarters, Jan. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert, File)