After 20 years of negotiations, the outdated EU-Mercosur trade deal has been delayed again. The promoters of the deal hoped to announce a political agreement at the Mercosur summit held today but Argentina and France refused to give their green light for a ratification.
A political agreement was reached in 2019 but its ratification stopped due to concerns among EU member states and the European parliament over rising forest fires and human rights violations in Brazil. There was also a strong reluctance to close a deal with far-right ex- Brasilian president Bolsonaro. The deforestation issues persist, especially in Mercosur territories such as Cerrado, Gran Chaco and Pantanal . With the recent election of far-right Argentinian President Milei, a climate-change denier, the so-called sustainability ambitions of the deal have become even more unrealistic.
If ratified, the EU-Mercosur trade deal would transfer enormous powers to multinational corporations, boost agribusiness expansion and the trade in harmful products, with damaging consequences on people’s fundamental rights to work, food, a healthy environment and safe climate. The greenwashed annex presented by the European Commission to salvage the deal is not enforceable and will not prevent the use of toxic pesticides, increasing carbon emissions nor deforestation.
Julie Zalcman, trade campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, said:
“The EU-Mercosur deal is rotten to its core. No new sustainability paper could prevent the disastrous impacts it would have on climate, people and nature if it is ratified. As COP28 unfolds, EU leaders must prioritise our planet and lives over profits. We call on them to refuse the ratification of a deal with climate-change denier president Milei and to finally shift EU policies towards a just transition.”
Lúcia Ortiz of Amigas da Terra Brasil continued:
“It’s a great victory for the Mercosur organisations and social movements that the renegotiation attempts with the European Union were not concluded this year. We reject these neoliberal and neocolonial agreements. We now wait for the official abandonment of this obsolete and asymmetrical agreement. It’s time for a new other bi-regional cooperation, based on democracy, complementarity, solidarity and the sovereignty of the peoples.”
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Stop the EU-Mercosur trade deal
The EU is close to finalising a climate-wrecking trade deal with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay – known collectively as Mercosur. But there’s still time to stop it.
