Will the impossible deal finally break the deadlock? On October 23, during an economic forum in Faro, Portugal, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that the European Union (EU) was “very close to the conclusion” the free trade agreement with the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia). He also promised “work” to seal it for two “key dates” : HE “G20 Summit”which will take place on November 18 and 19 in Rio de Janeiro, and the “Mercosur Summit”in Uruguay, on December 5 and 6.
The text, which has been negotiated since 1999, provides for the gradual elimination of customs duties on 90% of goods traded between the two blocs, thus creating a market of 720 million consumers. Although it was signed by both parties in June 2019, the arrival to power of the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) had chilled the Europeans.
The former president’s policy of destroying the Amazon fueled fears that the agreement would accelerate the disappearance of this tropical forest. According to a report from the Ambec 2020 commission, in charge of evaluating the “effects of sustainable development” of the treaty, its entry into force would lead to an increase in beef production in the Mercosur countries, causing an increase in deforestation of at least 5% annually during the first six years after the ratification of the agreement.
“Livestock is the main source of deforestation in the Amazon”recalls Paulo Barreto, expert in forestry sciences and member of the NGO Imazon. The researcher emphasizes that, in addition to the Amazon, the treaty also risks increasing the destruction of the Cerrado, a vast savannah that concentrates 5% of the world’s biodiversity and 93 indigenous lands, and which is strongly threatened by agricultural expansion. particularly soybeans. crops.
The agreement “is no longer fundamental”
Since the return to power of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in January 2023, committed to defending the climate, negotiations have resumed. But the addition by the EU, in March 2023, of an annex to introduce new environmental rules into the agreement and provide for sanctions in case of violation of the objectives of the 2015 Paris agreement has irritated Brazil. Lula, whose government allowed the deforestation rate in the Amazon to be reduced by 45.7%, denounced the European demands as a form of “green colonialism”during a BRICS summit in Johannesburg on August 22, 2023.
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