"Toxic EU Mercosur trade deal agreed," 6 December 2024

European Union and South American leaders have announced the conclusion of negotiations over a toxic free trade agreement during a summit in Montevideo, Uruguay, said Greenpeace. 

Greenpeace EU trade campaigner Lis Cunha said: “Twenty five years of secret talks behind closed doors, sidelining public concerns over and over again, have today resulted in a deal that will increase trade in beef, pesticides and plastics, with disastrous impacts on the Amazon, the climate and human rights. It is shameful for EU and Mercosur leaders to push ahead with this toxic agreement. We call on all policy-makers throughout Europe and Mercosur countries to listen to the widespread public opposition and vote against the deal.”

Greenpeace Brazil executive director Carolina Pasquali said: “This is a harmful agreement for the global climate, which will compromise countries’ efforts to face the climate emergency and the just transition. Furthermore, it is regrettable that an agreement with such an economic, social, political and environmental impact on Brazilian society and other Mercosur countries was negotiated behind closed doors, without social participation or transparency.” 

“This agreement encourages the import of highly polluting and health-damaging items that will soon be banned from the European market. In practice, it can lead to increased deforestation, as we exchange commodities—often sourced from deforested areas, including the Amazon—for the import of pesticides, automobiles, combustion engines, and plastics. It is also concerning that negotiations surrounding the agreement with Mercosur have been used as bargaining chips to delay and make the European Union’s Anti-Deforestation Law more flexible. This law could serve as a crucial mechanism to regulate trade and ensure that commodity production does not come at the expense of deforestation. Beyond the socio-environmental impacts, the agreement will significantly hinder industrialization and the creation of skilled jobs in Brazil and across Mercosur” added Pasquali.

Over 25 years of secret negotiations, a wide range of global civil society groups have repeatedly voiced steadfast opposition...

Trade unions, consumers, human rights groups and environmental organisations, economists, indigenous peoples, local municipalities and other civil society organisations have criticised the agreement, not to mention the more than 2 million EU citizens who have signed petitions opposing it. 

In addition, farmers in France, Poland and Belgium have taken to the streets... to protest against the deal and the impact it may have on the survival of struggling family farms. Stop EU-Mercosur, an alliance of more than 450 organisations in Europe and South America, has compiled a comprehensive and multilingual list of resources on the many problems with this toxic deal.

Next steps

The deal will need to be ratified in Europe and in Mercosur countries... Governments in France and Poland... have said that they oppose the deal. Austria is bound by a parliamentary resolution to vote against it. Several others, like Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and most recently Italy have also expressed significant concerns.