LUQUE, Paraguay, July 1, 2026, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Paraguayan President Santiago Pena criticized the "bitter taste" left by the EU-Mercosur trade deal at a meeting between leaders of the South American trade bloc on Tuesday.

The agreement to create one of the world's biggest free-trade zones was sealed in January after more than 25 years of intermittent negotiations.

Comments made by Pena at a Mercosur leaders' summit on the outskirts of Asuncion suggest that Paraguay felt slighted by the accord's export quotas, which it believes favors other members of the bloc.

"The playing field is not level for everyone," Pena said.

Under the trade deal, the European Union offers Mercosur import quotas with tariff benefits, leaving the bloc to decide how to distribute them among its partners.

Pena has called for quotas to be shared equally between Mercosur's partners before the EU ratifies the deal, calling it a "question of justice."

"If Mercosur wants to be credible outwardly, it first has to be fair inwardly," he added.

Leaders of other Mercosur countries -- Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, Bolivia's Rodrigo Paz and Uruguay's Yamandu Orsi -- attended the meeting, as did leaders of associate countries Chile and Ecuador.

Argentine President Javier Milei, whose country also belongs to the bloc, cancelled his attendance as he was grappling with the domestic fallout of his top governmental aide's resignation.