Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to negotiate a free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and Mercosur.

Mercosur countries are important partners for the UK. We are committed to strengthening our bilateral trading relationships to remove barriers to trade and help grow UK exports, which is why I visited Brazil soon after I took up post in 2025, where I signed agreements on customs, regulatory reform and export credit; and Argentina where I had meetings to further UK interests on whisky, financial services and air services. In addition, Uruguay has started its accession process to the CPTPP and Argentina has recently applied to join.

Any decision to seek to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with Mercosur will be communicated to the House in line with my department’s standard approach.