Brussels extends Mercosur trade safeguard rules to industrial and vehicle imports

The European Commission has extended the EU’s bilateral safeguard machinery to non-agricultural trade with Mercosur, adding the relevant clauses of the interim EU-Mercosur trade agreement to the annex of Regulation (EU) 2019/287. The change is made by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1741 of 15 July 2026, published in the Official Journal of the European Union of 3 November 2026. The regulation enters into force on the third day following publication, that is on 6 November 2026.

Regulation (EU) 2019/287 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 February 2019 sets out how the Union implements bilateral safeguard clauses and other mechanisms allowing the temporary withdrawal of preferences in trade agreements with third countries. Its annex lists the specific provisions contained in individual agreements which do not match the horizontal regime and which therefore prevail over it; the delegated regulation was adopted on the legal basis of Article 15 of that regulation.

The agricultural side was already covered: on 11 March 2026 the Council adopted Regulation (EU) 2026/687 implementing the safeguard clauses of the EU-Mercosur agreements for agricultural products, in force since 8 April 2026. The Commission now states that, for non-agricultural products, the agreement’s specific provisions “should be added to the Annex” to ensure transparency and readability. The text covers the Interim Agreement on Trade between the EU and the Common Market of the South, the Argentine Republic, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Republic of Paraguay and the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, published in OJ L 2026/184 of 27 February 2026 and provisionally applied from 1 May 2026.

Chapter 9 and the vehicle carve-out

The annex reproduces Chapter 9 on Bilateral Safeguard Measures, which applies to “any goods other than vehicles classified under HS headings 8703 and 8704”. Cars and goods vehicles are instead governed by a separate Annex 9-A, with its own definitions, injury test and deadlines.

• Competent investigating authority: the European Commission for the Union; in Mercosur, the Ministerio de Economía (Argentina), the Secretaria de Comércio Exterior of the Ministério do Desenvolvimento, Indústria, Comércio e Serviços (Brazil), the Ministerio de Industria y Comercio (Paraguay) and the Asesoría de Política Comercial del Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas (Uruguay).
• Domestic industry: producers as a whole, or those whose collective output normally exceeds 50 % of total production, and in exceptional circumstances not less than 25 %.
• Trigger: imports under preferential terms that have increased in absolute or relative terms and cause or threaten serious injury to the domestic industry of like or directly competitive products.

What a request must contain

Article 9.11 of the annexed chapter defines the file that domestic producers must submit to open an investigation, the procedural gateway for EU industry:

• Name and description of the imported product, its tariff heading and the tariff treatment in force, plus the like or directly competitive product.
• Names and addresses of the producers or associations filing the request and, where reasonably available, a list of all known producers.
• Evidence that the conditions for a measure are met: production volumes, the rate and amount of the increase in total and bilateral imports over at least 36 months, import price levels over the same period, and quantifiable data on output, sales, inventories, productivity, capacity use, employment, profits and market share.
• Confidential data must be accompanied by meaningful non-confidential summaries, including 12-month indices where aggregated figures would expose company data.

Deadlines, duration and territorial exemptions

From publication of the decision to initiate an investigation to the final decision, the period should not exceed one year, extendable to 18 months in exceptional circumstances; no measure may be applied if that timeframe is breached. Decisions must be notified in writing to the exporting party within 10 days of publication, and a definitive measure requires notification and an invitation to consultations at least 30 days before entry into force; absent a satisfactory solution within those 30 days, the measure may be applied.

Safeguards may not outlast the transition period — 12 years from entry into force, or 18 years for goods whose tariff elimination schedule runs 10 years or more. For non-agricultural goods a measure may be extended once for a period no longer than the initial one, and no new measure on the same product is possible until half of the previous measure’s total duration has elapsed. For vehicles the definitive measure may not exceed three years and may be extended once by a maximum of two years, with provisional measures capped at 270 days and transition periods of 12, 18, 20 or 25 years depending on the tariff schedule.

When the EU acts against Mercosur as a sole entity, Paraguay is exempted unless an investigation shows injury is also caused by Paraguayan preferential imports. Article 9.20 adds a specific regime for outermost regions facing serious deterioration of their economic situation, limited to the territory concerned:

• Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Reunion, St Martin, the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands.

The regulation was signed in Brussels on 15 July 2026 by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

For EU manufacturers exposed to Mercosur competition, the annex is the operative legal channel: it fixes who may file, what evidence is required and how quickly authorities must act, while giving importers and exporters a predictable calendar of notifications, consultations and maximum durations.

Source: Official Journal of the European Union, L series, No 2026/1741, 3 November 2026, legislation, p. 1/13 (official reference: CELEX L_202601741).