European Farmers Critical of EU-Mercosur Agreement

By Newsfeed/AFP

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – European farmers immediately spoke out against the trade agreement that the EU and Mercosur signed on Friday in Brussels, which they regard as a threat to their activity.

As soon as the deal was announced, Twitter messages of outrage and critical statements began to spread, contrasting with the grins of European and South American negotiators, pleased with this “historical” commitment, after 20 years of discussions.

The Copa Cogeca, the EU’s leading agricultural union, criticized a “double trade policy that widens the gap between what is being asked of European farmers and what is being tolerated by Mercosur producers whose phytosanitary and environmental standards are not the same as in Europe.”

In Germany, Joachim Rukwied, director of the Deutscher Bauernverband agricultural union, said the agreement is “utterly imbalanced” and will endanger “many family farming businesses.”

“A few weeks after the European elections, the signing of a Mercosur-EU agreement, which is expected to expose European farmers to unfair competition and consumers to total deception, is unacceptable,” said Christiane Lambert, director of France’s largest farming union, FNSEA.

Irish “Agriland” headlined their reporting with “EU farmers stabbed in the back by Mercosur deal”.

Also, a recent open letter signed by 340 European and South American NGOs, including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, criticized the negotiations on two other fronts: environmental and human rights, weakened by the policy of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, according to the organizations.

To reach this compromise, Mercosur was forced to open its doors to European industry, particularly in the automotive sector, but also the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors, as well as their government markets.

In return, the EU will ease access to its market to the four South American countries eager to sell sugar, ethanol, and meat.

The French meat sector believes it will not be able to compete with Latin American “meat factories”.

The situation becomes even more complicated when considering the differences in practices on both continents: while in the EU there are more and more environmental standards, in South America antibiotics, growth hormones, and genetically modified soybeans are being used.

For the full picture, see our Mercosur EU Trade Deal: Complete Guide.