Brazil’s Agriculture Minister: EU-Mercosur Agreement Benefits Both Blocs

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina believes that the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur will be signed despite the potential for the text to “go back and forth”.

“The agreement is very beneficial for both blocs. Agriculture in Europe has not grown for many years. They will be less and less competitive in comparison to Brazil and this frightens European producers,” she said in an interview to the Valor Reconstrução Sustentável Forum on Tuesday, September 29th.

In August, German Chancellor Angela Merkel even said she had “serious doubts” regarding the implementation of the agreement between the two blocs, because of the Amazon.

About the pressure exercised by the external market due to the Brazilian environmental issues, the Minister said: “In a gigantic country like ours it is very difficult to say that you are going to solve this in a very short time, there are several variables,” she pointed out, emphasizing the use of patch burning by producers.

Tereza Cristina said that, from her standpoint, the most sensitive aspect is not criticism from European states, but potential impacts on sales. “My concern is that this negative propaganda will not overwhelmingly impact consumers,” she completed.

The Minister also criticized the continent’s environmental policies. “Europe today has an energy matrix that comes from coal and oil. I know they are working on it, but our energy matrix is much cleaner,” she said, pointing out that the cities and not the countryside are the main issues. According to her, world agriculture has an impact of only about 20 percent on the greenhouse gas emission issue.

Source: Estadão Conteúdo

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