Euractiv | 18 May 2026
EU races to lock in Mexico deal with Washington looming
by Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro
The EU is set to sign its revamped trade agreement with Mexico next week, as Brussels moves to lock in the deal amid growing uncertainty over parallel trade talks with Washington.
The agreement will be formally signed at an EU-Mexico summit in Mexico City on 22 May, attended by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Negotiations on the modernised pact concluded in January 2025, just days before US President Donald Trump returned to the White House and reignited tariff threats against major trading partners.
“The timing of this agreement is no coincidence,” one EU official told reporters ahead of the summit, describing the accord as a “geopolitical statement” in defence of open, rules-based trade.
Mexico is the EU’s second-largest trading partner in Latin America after Brazil, with which Brussels recently finalised the long-delayed Mercosur agreement. Brussels expects the revamped deal to further boost bilateral trade, which already exceeds €80 billion annually.
Protected food names
The updated EU-Mexico deal modernises a partnership dating back to 2000, adding new provisions on intellectual property, sustainable development and digital trade.
Still, Brussels remains wary after the political backlash triggered by Mercosur, particularly over agricultural concessions. This time, however, lawmakers insist the dynamics are different.
Borja Giménez Larraz, the European Parliament’s lead MEP on the EU-Mexico trade deal, argues Mexican agriculture is largely complementary to – rather than in direct competition with – European production.
“For Europeans, enormous opportunities are opening up in value-added products such as cheese, olive oil or chocolate,” he told Euractiv.
The EU already sells around €2.7 billion worth of food products to Mexico annually, while the agreement will gradually eliminate tariffs on key exports such as cheese, where duties currently reach 45%, albeit in some cases under quota arrangements.
A key component of the agreement is geographical indications. Mexico will protect 336 additional EU food and drink names, on top of the 232 spirits already recognised under existing arrangements.
The list includes Dutch gouda, Greek feta and Jamón de Teruel – a delicacy from Giménez Larraza’s home region, he noted. The protections are designed to shield European producers from foreign imitations and reinforce the value of premium EU food exports.
US shadow looms large
But the signing comes under the long shadow of Washington.
The US, Mexico and Canada are simultaneously renegotiating the USMCA trade deal, initially meant to conclude by 1 July, though US officials now acknowledge talks could stretch beyond that deadline.
At the same time, Washington has intensified pressure against the EU’s geographical indication regime in bilateral trade negotiations, seeking to undermine protections for flagship European products.
The US has pushed the issue with partners such as Argentina, despite the EU having already concluded the Mercosur agreement. Similar demands are expected to surface in the USMCA talks with Mexico and Canada.
Charles Deparis, president of oriGIn EU, representing GI food producers, said the EU-Mexico agreement offers “a very strong level of protection” for such products. But he said rapid ratification is key given the “increasing pressure” on EU trade partners to “undermine GI protections.”
“oriGIn EU calls on EU institutions and their trade partners to remain firm in defending the integrity of the GI system and to ensure that existing commitments are fully respected,” Deparis said.
The Commission is well aware of the stakes.
Speaking at an event at the Mexican embassy in Brussels last month, Commission top trade official Leopoldo Rubinacci declined to comment directly on repeated US challenges to EU geographical indications, but insisted that he remained confident Mexico and the EU would honour their commitments to the revamped deal.
Giménez Larraz expects the ratification process to move quickly.
“Our objective is for Parliament’s consent to be adopted in July, before the summer,” he said. “We are all aware of the need to close this as quickly as possible … to ensure it is settled on our terms and without interference,” the centre-right MEP said.
