Lawmakers increasingly see the advantage of opening trade corridors in a continent that has bounced back from the downturn with more impressive results than all of Europe put together.

As Europe's recovery proceeds in fits and starts, it sees the huge Latin American market as little less than a panacea -- a lucrative source of new export revenue that is hard to come by elsewhere across global markets.

The sting in the tail, however, is that reciprocity will carry a heavy price. Freer imports of food and commodities from Latin America are set to edge sideways huge segments of home-grown goods, most of which are subsidized through EU support to farmers.

Will the give-and-take work? No one knows for sure. But more European policymakers seem willing to take the risk and offer Latin America's Mercosur member countries a partnership that eluded the two region's multi-faceted ties for many years.

Mercosur came into being in 1991 after treaty accords between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru later joined as associate members. Venezuela, a full member since 2006, is waiting to have its entry ratified.

Together the members represent more than 270 million people with a gross domestic product of about $3 trillion. Amid feeble poverty reduction programs, an across-the-board but uneven growth of a consumer middle class offers EU exporters a vast opportunity not likely to be available anywhere else.

Despite Latin America's obvious allure, European Parliament members, with a nod to skeptical voter constituencies, in a resolution this week redrew "red lines" to make sure the pact didn't put at risk environment, food security or the EU's health and hygiene standards.

The members also took Argentina to task for recent protectionist trade measures, already denounced in previous EU-Latin American contacts. The MEPs' sharp rejoinder was a warning to other Mercosur partners not to follow Argentina's protectionist measures.

For cash-strapped and slow-recovery EU, Latin America already is a key external trade interest. The resolution, drafted by former EU Commission head Helmut Scholz, welcomed the conclusion of an EU-Central America association agreement earlier in the year and urged talks with Mercosur to go ahead.

Scholz, who once famously compared the EU to an unidentified flying object with an unknown destination, now has other European Parliament members backing the idea of a Mercosur deal.

However, the next stage will involve a thorough reassessment of the impact of an agreement. Once in place, a Mercosur free trade pact could boost Latin America's beef exports to Europe by up to 70 percent and poultry by 25 percent, analysts said.

Skeptical MEP say Latin American exports will be cheaper than Europe produce because of less stringent sanitary, environmental and social standards.

The lawmakers say all EU multilateral agreements must enshrine clear environmental standards to fight climate change, deforestation and gas emissions, food security of imported agricultural products, protection for small food producers from both sides and reduction of poverty in Latin America. EU lawmakers also want to see trade replacing aid handouts.

With the momentum for an accord next year already set, analysts said the next stage would determine how much the EU would compromise on that ambitious wish list amid the growing imperative to secure a deal with Mercosur.

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