Civil society coalition calls for EU-Mercosur deal halt as environmental concerns continue to rise

16 May 2023 --- Civil society organizations from South America and Europe are calling for the immediate halt of the EU-Mercosur trade deal. The signing organizations highlight the detrimental consequences it would bring as they argue that the trade agreement not only exacerbates deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions but also contributes to human rights violations, job losses and animal suffering.

Rejecting attempts to “greenwash” the agreement, the coalition –composed of over 170 organizations – is urging the EU and Mercosur to forge a new relationship built on the principles of cooperation, solidarity, equality, democracy and sustainability.

If approved Mercosur would expand bilateral trade and lower tariffs between the EU and South American countries. 

“We need a strong and reliable relationship with Mercosur. Cooperation instead of competition and solidarity instead of exploitation should be the guiding principle for EU-Mercosur relations,” says Theresa Kofler, coordinator of the Anders Handel platform, an alliance of civil society organizations and trade unions in Austria.

“Instead of our relationships being shaped by the interests of transnational corporations, we need to have a model of economic and political cooperation that builds around the needs of people, public services, care work, food sovereignty and sustainability,” she notes.

The European Commission has worked in recent months to make some changes to the original deal. However, the civil coalition flags the adjustments as “cosmetic, aspirational and unenforceable.”

An unbalanced deal?
The organizations argue that Mercosur countries will “foot the bill” and the only ones to benefit would be transnational companies.

The civil society coalition says that the new deforestation legislation will not be able to restrain the risks presented by the EU-Mercosur trade agreement.“Our common future should not be based on importing more natural resources from Mercosur and exporting thermic cars and pesticides, including pesticides banned in the EU, but on guaranteeing a good life for all,” the coalition says.

Christiane Lambert, president of Copa, which represents EU farmers, says the deal negatively affects many fragile European agricultural sectors, saying it takes negotiating power from the hands of European farmers to those of the large operators in the Mercosur countries.

The beef meat, poultry, sugar, ethanol, rice, orange juice and honey sectors are flagged by Copa as some of the ones that would be the most harmed by Mercosur.

Furthermore, in Brazil alone farmers use 27 herbicides and insecticides banned in Europe, raising food safety concerns.

Deforestation risks
The civil society coalition says that the new deforestation legislation will not be able to restrain the risks presented by the EU-Mercosur trade agreement.

“This is because the unconditional trade liberalization foreseen in the EU-Mercosur agreement will further fuel intensification of animal farming, and the legislation ignores many products that contribute to deforestation, as well as other biomes that, just like the Amazon rainforest, are also destroyed by intensive agriculture,” says Stephanie Ghislain, political affairs manager at Eurogroup for Animals. 

The organizations explain that while the negotiations set a target of reducing deforestation by at least 50% from current levels by 2025, EU imports from the Mercosur region of products like soy and poultry, which drive deforestation, are rising and the deal will only increase these exports.

“We need a u-turn for EU trade policy: leaving climate destruction, human and animal rights violations behind and moving toward a sustainable and social relationship based on solidarity for all,” concludes Leah Sullivan from the European Trade Justice Coalition.

Edited by Marc Cervera