"Today we have an historical agreement that creates the world's largest free trade zone", Kaja Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission said on 6 December 2024. region has include 750 million people and about 20% of the planet economy.
At first glance, the deal seems flawless. It is intended to bring recovery to both parties while respecting EU standards on food safety and the fight for climate change.
On behalf of the another side, the agreement was signed by the leaders of the 4 Latin American countries associated with the Mercosur economical Union. It is Lula da Silva, Javier Milei, Santiago Peña and Luis Lacalle Pou, or successive presidents of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. (In 2024, Bolivia joined the Mercosur Group, but it did not participate in the negotiations and is not organization to the agreement).
The main nonsubjective of the agreement is to remove duties and another barriers to trade between the 2 blocks, so that they have better access to each other's markets. This, in turn, is intended to advance growth in trade, investment and economical cooperation.
The first negotiations were concluded even in 2019 erstwhile the European Union and Mercosur agreed on strict commercial elements of the agreement. Work on sustainable improvement continued until December last year. And despite the European Commission's assurance that products imported into Europe must meet EU standards, critics have no uncertainty that these are empty promises.
And this is just 1 of the long list of allegations which bring out the agricultural resorts of Poland and France, as well as united as never before farmers and environmental activists.
Farmers say no
For the EC, the agreement is of strategical importance: in the face of uncertain relations with China, 1 of the main players in the planet market, Europe needs to make economical cooperation with another "safer" region. Experts at the Polish Institute of global Affairs argued last year that "the conclusion of negotiations on the paper [...] is to signal opposition to protectionist tendencies in the world, especially due to concerns that the policy of Donald Trump's future administration will intensify".
In addition, Latin American countries will be a grateful outlet for cars, machinery, IT equipment, but besides textiles, alcohol, medicines and pesticides – including those banned in the EU. However, European farmers are convinced that they will pay the highest price. The loudest opposition is heard from farmers and cattle farmers in France who enjoy the support of the president and Parliament. Poland's their partner:
"There will be no Polish agreement to destruct agriculture in Poland or Europe, to bring products to Europe and to Poland that we do not know what the production process is" – said at the beginning of January 2025 the head of the MON, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamish. He assured that the PSL organization was seeking to block the agreement and encouraged another Community countries to do so. This is supported by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
What would "destroying agriculture in Europe" mean? Meat production in Mercosur countries is up to 40%. cheaper than in EU countries. Farmers in the EU must bear higher costs of producing poultry, pigmeat or beef, inter alia, in view of the standards already in force. So they fear that cheaper alternatives from outside the ocean will push them out of the market.
And it is not amazing – Brazil produces itself more beef than the full EU. In 2023, the main export product of Mercosur to the Union was food (including sugar and soya) and livestock, and, secondly, mineral natural materials essential for the improvement of RES and the production of batteries for smartphones or laptops.
In November 2024, French farmers organized dozens of protests nationwide, supported by the Coordination Rurale (CR), a extremist right-wing farmers' union. Blockades stood, among others, on the road connecting Spain with the remainder of Europe. “We want to make chaos and food shortages” – said Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, a typical of the CR, with whom members of other, little extremist relationships besides came to the streets.
On the side of farmers, president Emmanuel Macron supported the French Parliament, calling the agreement "unacceptable". possibly due to the native agricultural sector and possibly due to the fear that protests They'll escalate up to sizes specified as in early 2024.
All in favor?
However, not all Community countries share the position of Poland and France. The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his top support for the agreement. "The Mercosur Agreement is simply a breakthrough in diversification and strengthening the resilience of our economy" – saidencourage the adoption of the draft as shortly as possible.
Indeed, it is an excellent arrangement for Germany – they already reign in terms of exports of goods to Mercosur countries, whose value amounts to over EUR 15 billion per year. Germany hopes that the agreement will bring even more profits.
"We already have a good relation with Mercosur, but we deficiency real dynamics. This is partially due to the fact that Mercosur countries impose duties of 25-30 percent on typical German export products specified as cars, but besides electronic or mechanical-treated goods," Volker Treier, head of abroad trade in the German Chamber of manufacture and Commerce (DIHK), says.
Interestingly, France was ranked second in terms of profits from trade with Mercosur behind Germany. The 2 countries are leading the way in Europe in terms of the improvement of the agricultural sector and beef production, but the government of Olaf Scholza seems to see greater benefits from exports of industrial goods to the US market. Experts point out that it is the automotive manufacture in the European block that will benefit most from the agreement – the highest duties in the Mercosur countries are imposed on cars and parts of them.
The agreement is besides supported by the Spanish authorities despite protests by farmers and cattle farmers. Minister of Agriculture Luis Planas arguedthat this is simply a "great chance for Spain and the European Union". Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez commented: “Commercial openness with our Latin American friends will make us grow and become more independent.”
Mercosur countries are besides enthusiastic. president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hoped to finalise the agreement last year – Brazil plays a key function in the negotiations and the possible functioning of the free trade area.
However, not so long ago, due to the fact that in 2023 during the election campaign, Lula's attitude to the agreement was much more critical: "We will not agree to an agreement that brings us to the function of subcontractors" – said, indicating that food would flow 1 way and the another would flow into products of highly developed industry.
In the end, however, negotiations have resulted. Brazilian diplomats stress that advancement has been made, inter alia, in environmental legislation. These—at least officially—are of large importance to Lula, unlike his predecessor, Jaira Bolsonaro.
Meanwhile, NGOs on both sides of the Atlantic indicate that the agreement has a disastrous impact on both people and the planet.
Animals will get hurt.
Activists and activists and local and global NGOs have been fighting against an agreement for years. Over 400 organisations from Europe and Latin America signed an open letter criticising the EU-Mercosur agreement. They highlight, among others, the serious consequences of livestock.
– The agreement of the 2 blocks upholds EU rules on food safety or human, animal and plant health, but not on animal welfare. The guidelines for the second are mostly lower in Mercosur countries than in the Union – commented for Politic Critic Małgorzata Szadkowska, president of Polish division of Compassion in planet Farming (CIWF Polska).
An example? Batteries, i.e. the smallest ones where laying hens are kept in rows of cages set on each other, were withdrawn from the EU in 2012 (although this does not mean that the breeding of these animals is free of cruelty).
In the Mercosur countries, there are no akin prohibitions on specified breeding or the expected fresh legislation. In addition, there are even little restrictive and general rules on the South American marketplace for the transport and slaughter of animals.
Szadkowska recalls that the largest possible exporter of meat, Brazil, is not only celebrated for beef production, but is besides a leader in poultry production, with low standards for poultry surviving conditions. “Brazil has inactive not banned antibiotics as growth promoters. Bad conditions on farms, specified as intensive breeding and besides advanced density, which advance the improvement of bacteria and their mutations, are most frequently masked by the abuse of antibiotics – he explains.
The president of CIWF Poland, like another NGOs, is besides afraid that the agreement can frost any advancement in EU government and effort to improve animal welfare throughout the European Community.
A fresh EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Christophe Hansen, was late elected. As a result, the debate on the revision of existing government on breeding animals has returned, as most of these regulations are at least 20 years old and do not adhere to reality. There is besides inactive no promised ban on caged farming of different species of animals that would operate throughout the Union. alternatively of moving in this direction, the EU will now take a large step backwards through an agreement with Mercosur.
– I am not amazed that European farmers fear cheaper competition from overseas. We can besides speculate that they will be demotivated to introduce on their farms further, higher standards of well-being, breeding free standing breeds or not utilizing cages in breeding," says Szadkowska.
Climate damage
The opponents of the agreement are afraid about how it will affect the climate crisis. They are not reassured by the fact that the agreement obliges both parties to comply with the Paris Agreement and is besides intended to put the fight against climate change at the centre of trade relations. It is besides doubtful that 1 of the signatories is the president of Argentina Javier Milei, climate negationist, which presently presides over the rotational presidency of the Mercosur block.
– This is inactive a discussion on theoretical assurances, not applicable solutions – the president of CIWF Polska believes. Its authors and authors of the open letter of the 400 non-governmental organisations mentioned:
"The agreement promotes destructive agricultural models that displace tiny farmers and indigenous communities while driving EU exports of toxic agrochemicals, even those banned in the EU [...] No environmental annex can mitigate the long-term harm that this agreement will cause. This. normal greenwashing“ They write.
If the free trade region actually removes tiny and medium-sized farmers and farmers from the game, there is simply a serious hazard that further areas of rainforests will be cut under pastures and the increasing business of large players. In the meantime, European countries are already liable for more than a 3rd of the world's forest cuts associated with the trade in agricultural products.
According to research, the agreement will velocity up the deforestation of Mercosur countries by 25% per year (and only due to increased beef production). This is not the case with the EUDR Regulation adopted by the European Parliament in 2023, which restricts trade in goods if their production involves deforestation and forest degradation.
In practice, however, erstwhile again, despite the pressures of NGOs, the European Parliament has postponed the entry into force of any of its provisions. It doesn't substance to Brazil, due to the fact that the authorities there already convinced EU decision-makers to make an exception for their goods.
According to Szadkowski, the agreement in its present form should be rejected by all EU associate States and the European Parliament. "Another solution is simply a crucial change to this agreement, in order to let EU countries to refuse to import food produced with lower animal welfare and environmental standards," he believes.
Now, ratification
The final adoption of the agreement is close as ever, although there are inactive many unknowns. In the following months, the agreement will pass through legal verification to enable the final text to be prepared and translated. However, it is not known how long this will take.
There is besides a questionable ratification which will take place in the second place. The EC decided that the commercial part of the agreement would be carried out separately. This means that a qualified majority in the Council of the EU (15 out of 27 associate States, if they represent at least 65% of the EU population) and an average majority in the European Parliament will be needed to accept it.
Voting in the EU Council, consisting of associate State ministers, can complicate France's opposition with the support of Poland, the Netherlands and Ireland. ‘If the blocking of the agreement in the Council fails, the trading part will become temporary. another parts will require ratification in individual EU countries," explained PISM researchers.
In the case of Mercosur, it is up to national parliaments to decide on the future of the agreement. And while all 4 governments are in favour of its ratification, this does not necessarily translate into support of divided parliaments.
Despite all the controversy, the head of the European Commission goes even further. On 17 January, she announced a free trade agreement with another Latin American country – Mexico. It is possible that it will only inflame the opposition of farmers and EU countries, which already feel that their agricultural sector is on the brink.
