The European Union and the Latin American trade bloc mercosur signed a free-trade deal on December 6, after 25 years of negotiations. It has taken so long that many gave up on it ever getting over the finish line. But Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in 2019: “This trade agreement will impact the whole world! It is going to affect your life dramatically.”

The deal creates a free-trade area of nearly 800 million people and gives the German industrial machine access to cheap raw materials. In time, it will bring Latin America and Europe much closer politically. And it will give Europe yet another reason to unite behind a strong leader and come together as a superstate. This could be a sign that the EU will radically transform into this superstate next year.

But it will do much more than that. For 65 years, we’ve been warning about this kind of deal, which will pave the way for the most dramatic trade war in history—and become a major threat to the United States of America.

mercosur is a Latin American trade bloc made up of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, with Venezuela suspended from the group, and several other associate countries. The EU does more trade with this bloc than the U.S. does, second only to China. The two blocs trade about $115 billion with each other annually.

The bloc is a key source of lithium and copper—both of which Germany needs as it shifts to battery-powered cars and high-tech industries. Germany specializes in producing cars, industrial machinery and chemicals—all of which are subject to high tariffs in Latin America. Some parts of mercosur have tariffs of 35 percent on cars or 20 percent on machines. Those tariffs would be phased out over the next couple of decades. German companies could save half a billion euros a year.

The deal also extends EU bureaucracy into Latin America. As part of the agreement, mercosur nations must sign up to the Paris Climate Agreement. There is also a raft of rules on deforestation. No one wants to see the Amazon chopped down or the air polluted, but the EU excels at using complex rules in these areas to extend its power.

Negotiations took place in secret, and the full text of the deal wasn’t published until after it was signed. European ombudsman Emily O’Reilly—elected by the European Parliament to act as an ethics watchman—complained in 2023 about the EU’s refusal to publish a document it sent over as part of the negotiations, saying: “It is difficult to reconcile the refusal to disclose this document with the Commission’s commitment to a more open policymaking process in trade and investment.”

mercosur and the EU may have reached an agreement, but there’s still a huge roadblock: Before it goes into effect, it must be ratified by EU member states.

In 2016, the EU signed a major free-trade deal with Canada. It took two years for all EU member states to agree. Wallonia, a region in Belgium, almost derailed the whole thing.

France is very opposed to the mercosur deal. Protecting its farmers is one of its top goals at the EU level. It fears that with cheaper labor costs and less regulation, Latin American farmers will outperform the French.

The EU had a few tricks up its sleeve to try to stop France scuppering the whole thing. It split the agreement into two parts. The most controversial part, focused on trade, can be passed without unanimous consent—though France may still be able to create a blocking minority. But the other part of the deal still needs to be accepted by the parliaments of all 27 EU members.

The difficulty in getting this passed is also important to watch. “Before Europe can be closely tied to Latin America, something will have to change,” wrote Mr. Flurry in 2019. “The current politically and religiously disunified EU will have to become a politically, militarily and religiously unified Holy Roman Empire. Latin America is already quite united in its religion; the Holy Roman Empire will have to become united in its religion as well. And the only way to remove the division is by reducing that union to 10 nations.”

The EU cannot get these kinds of deals over the finish line in its current makeup. It is too big. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has not been particularly transparent or democratic to get to this point. The EU needs a more forceful leader with more power to get it over the line.

Immediately after World War ii, when Germany was little more than smoldering rubble, Herbert W. Armstrong forecast it would rise again to lead a union of nations in the territory of the old Roman Empire. You could say this was the signature prophecy of Mr. Armstrong’s work over 50 years.

He said Europe would come together first economically and then gradually draw closer in a political and military union.

Much of that prophecy has been fulfilled. Mr. Armstrong even used the term “European Union” in 1945 to describe what would be coming. This prophecy was based on Revelation 17, which describes a “beast,” or an empire, with seven heads, representing seven kings who rule one after the other. This empire rises and falls, with gaps between its peaks of power. It is ridden by a woman, a symbol of a church.

Where is there an empire that falls, only to be resurrected again, led by a church? This is referring to the Holy Roman Empire in Europe.

This empire is rising in the EU. But the Catholic Church does not yet play the dominant role it has in past resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire. And there are 27 squabbling member states, not 10 united kings. It also lacks the strongman the Bible says will dominate it.

In 2019, Mr. Flurry wrote: “If this massive trade deal is finalized this year, then I believe we will see the current 28-nation European Union pared down to the prophesied 10-nation superpower this year as well.” They failed to finalize the deal in 2019, but it is finalized now—though awaiting ratification. Could we see the 10-nation superpower emerge this coming year?

Europe currently has a leadership vacuum. The German government lost a confidence vote on December 16. The French government fell on December 4. The Spanish government lost its majority in Parliament at the same time. The mercosur trade deal is one more reason for Europe to seek a strongman.

Mr. Armstrong and his Plain Truth magazine also forecast that Latin America would work with this Holy Roman Empire. The October 1957 Plain Truth stated, “Latin American nations will join in with the European revival of the old Roman Empire.”

In 1962, it warned, “The United States is going to be left out in the cold as two gigantic trade blocs, Europe and Latin America, mesh together and begin calling the shots in world commerce.”

The mercosur deal paves the way for that to happen.

In Revelation 17:17, God says that He is allowing the rise of this Holy Roman Empire to “fulfil his will.” He will use this empire to correct Britain and America, the modern descendants of ancient Israel, on whom He has poured tremendous blessings. (Request our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.)

This Holy Roman Empire will besiege the U.S., cutting it off from world trade. It needs Latin America to do that. If the U.S. does not repent, the Bible warns of a coming captivity; again, Latin America will play a role. Past leaders of the Holy Roman Empire with designs on attacking America were hammered by the lack of a Latin American or Caribbean base. This time, it won’t have that problem.

This trade deal plays a critical role in end-time prophecy, which leads to the return of Jesus Christ. The rise of this Holy Roman Empire is an important step on the road to what is ultimately good news.

Mr. Flurry’s 2019 article “America Is Being Besieged Economically” goes through these prophecies in much greater detail. Although the deal was not signed in 2019, this article is still your essential guide to what it means now.