Latin America and European Union relations in an interdependent world going through "deglobalisation"

This chapter argues that the shift in world politics that commenced in 2016 has created the best momentum to further develop Latin American and European Union relations for political and economic reasons. For political reasons it is intended to reinforce an international arena where multilateralism and respect for international forums and international law continue to exist. For economic reasons it is a way of creating growth and redistributing economic power away from the two largest economies (the US and China) who have clear foreign policy goals regarding the projection of power in both Latin America and the European Union. They are dangerously taking everyone towards a bipolar world. The remainder of this chapter discusses the economic balance of power that has developed over time between the North and the South with a discussion of the BRICS as well as a discussion of the potential outcomes of those struggles, followed by the development of mega-regional agreements until 2016. In Latin America the election of Bolsonaro in 2018 with an individualistic agenda was expected to affect the negotiations with the other countries within Mercosur or with the European Union. Although the EU and Latin America have intended for years to review their links, Trump’s unilateral and conflictive measures against them have actually accelerated their agendas (Santander 2020). Therefore for some of them the counterbalancing exercise took place against Trump, or for others potentially against China or even against both.