A prosperous and sustainable future for European agriculture must be built on the Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategies. The planned EU-Mercosur trade deal, now in the late stages of approval, will undermine those goals and should not be approved.
Defenders of the Mercosur deal argue that threats are minimised because of low export volumes and provisions to protect the European Union’s farmers. In the beef sector, for example, the European Commission has said imports would amount to 1.6% of EU consumption: less than 2 burgers per person each year.
But the details tell a different story. A study by IDELE, conducted on behalf of the Greens, found that most imports of chilled and frozen beef from Mercosur are high-value cuts such as rump and loin. These represent only around one-sixth of an adult cow’s carcass weight but nearly a third of its value on the European market; they are the main driver of beef prices.
Protecting small-scale farmers
The trade deal with Mercosur — comprising Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — risks weakening Europe’s already hard-hit farming communities. The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work reported last year that up to 20% of farmers experience suicidal thoughts, and that one farmer in France takes their own life every two days.
Twice as many French farming households live below the poverty line than the national average, the same report found. A deal giving unfair access to foreign farmers risks exacerbating these issues.
Despite this, the Commission waived the idea of a compensation fund for farmers. A 30% cut in the Common Agricultural Policy budget in the new Multiannual Financial Framework proposal highlights a lack of support for farmers.
The deal will also have negative effects for people in the Mercosur region. In Brazil, food insecurity affects 60% of the population, according to Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, many of whom rely on local farming. The EU-Mercosur trade deal will support intensive, export-oriented farming, leaving smallholders unable to compete.
European food standards at risk
Protections in the draft agreement do not stand up to scrutiny, particularly around food safety standards. The EU has long implemented high food safety standards to protect its citizens, but these are not common practice across the world.
The Mercosur deal leaves gaps for standards to be circumvented. Article 7 of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) chapter of the deal indicates that “the frequency of the import checks” will be reduced. If the EU wants to carry out verification visits for goods, these have to be notified to the exporting party at least 60 working days before, providing ample time for changes to be made.
These concerns are founded in recent history. In March this year, China suspended beef imports from seven meatpacking facilities across Mercosur countries Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, as well as Mongolia, because they failed to comply with relevant regulations.
On a European Parliament International Trade (INTA) committee visit to Brazil, I visited Latin America's largest port, Santos, through which a third of Brazil's international trade passes. I learned that soybeans, coffee, wood and corn are not subject to any phytosanitary controls.
Other provisions in the deal are not granular enough to take into account the reality of the production areas, meaning the long-term impacts of these influxes and standard circumventions could pass under the radar.
On my visit, Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs made it clear that Mercosur countries will not accept any additional safeguards on agriculture and emphasised that the deal’s text would only be unilateral, with no implications for Mercosur countries, and non-binding.
Mercosur ministers are clearly not hungry for change. European farmers and consumers should not be made to suffer as a result.
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