21 June 2021
Campaigners have
long-held the position that the EU-Mercosur Agreement fails to protect human
rights, critical ecosystems and the climate.
Most recently, a new report released by the Irish Centre for Human Rights (ICHR) condemns the environmental degradation and human rights abuses in the controversial agreement.
According to the
EU-Mercosur Agreement: A Human Rights Analysis, the authors Reshma
Das, Emma Kelly and Simon Seitz, concluded that the trade deal is likely to
drastically increase deforestation, carbon emissions and the abuse of
indigenous people.
The trade pact was
struck in 2019 between the European Union and the Mercosur region after two
decades of talks, but right now it’s currently on pause.
So what is the
Agreement exactly? What are the implications? And what happens next?
So, let’s take it from the top: what is the EU-Mercosur Agreement?
The EU-Mercosur
Agreement is a bilateral trade agreement between the EU and the four Mercosur
States of South America – Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The agreement
promotes free trade and commerce between the EU and the 260 million consumer
region of the Mercosur, which is the fifth-largest market outside of the
EU.
If it comes into
force, it will be the largest free trade agreement negotiated by the European
Union.
The European Commission website has called the deal a “win-win” for both the EU and the Mercosur region, creating opportunities for growth, jobs and sustainable development on both sides.
The agreement came
after years of negotiations. Talks originally began in 1999 but stalled and floundered
for years before regaining momentum in 2016.
Although
negotiations for the deal are currently at a pause, other parts of the
EU-Mercosur Association Agreement were concluded, and an agreement was reached
on the pillars of political dialogue.
The negotiation text has not yet been published but was leaked by Greenpeace.
Since talks began, scrutiny of the deal intensified from campaigners across the continent.
What are the environmental issues with the agreement?
The trade deal offers
substantial reductions in tariffs and opens new markets to the EU-Mercosur
blocs, but it also has the potential to cause lasting damage to ecosystems and
the climate.
Mercosur countries
and their neighbours already are undergoing rapid deforestation to meet the
global demand for meat and livestock feed.
The trade agreement
threatens to significantly ratchet this up as it would substantially increase
industrial farming for ethanol, beef and soy in Brazil.
17 per cent of the Amazon Rainforest has already been destroyed through deforestation.
According to the ICHR report, ratification of the deal will result in the expansion of deforestation by 25 per cent per year, which equals to the entire land area of the the Netherlands.
Approximately 20 per
cent of all soy and 17 per cent of beef exported to the EU from the Mercosur
regions are linked to deforestation.
The Amazon Rainforest
is on the brink of collapse and if deforestation continues to accelerate, the
world will switch towards a novel ecosystem, which is a human-built, modifying
influence on the climate and environment.
The novel ecosystem
will cause major impacts on weather patterns and the global climate regulation
system.
According to the text
of the EU-Mercosur Agreement itself, there is no legally binding mechanism to
ensure that states from both trading blocs adhere to their international
climate change agreements, including the Paris Agreement and the European Green
Deal.
Although the
EU-Mercosur agreement mentions sustainable development, “The regulations are
too lax and they don’t contain any real obligations,” said an author of the
paper, Emma Kelly.
“It [the agreement]
doesn’t contain sufficient standards to ensure the protection of the
environment or sustainable trade which is in contrast to the requirements of
the Paris Agreement, that the EU and all four Mercosur countries are parties
to.
“As such, they are
legally bound by the [Paris] treaty,” she said.
How does the EU-Mercosur Agreement do when it comes to European climate
goals?
According to the ICHR
Rights report, the trade agreement is inconsistent with the European Green
Deal.
The European Green
Deal was described by the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen
as “Europe’s man on the moon moment.” The ambitious deal committed the EU to
become carbon neutral by 2050, reverting biodiversity loss and stopping climate
change.
Compared to the
current level of emissions from the trade in these products between the EU and
the Mercosur, the growth in greenhouse gas emissions will be 34 per cent,
according to the ICHR.
The European Green
Deal says that no group or region should be put at a disadvantage through
economic development.
“This is the
hypocrisy and contradictions of the EU,” said Ms Kelly. “They [The EU] have
great marketing campaigners for sustainability and becoming climate neutral by
2050, yet they’re signing away the Amazon Rainforest and precious ecosystems
surrounding that area.”
In the current draft
of the EU-Mercosur Agreement, there are no enforcement mechanisms to guarantee
compliance with international sustainability treaties.
So what are campaigners looking for?
Back in March 2021, 450 civil society organisations launched a coalition to stop the EU-Mercosur Agreement.
The organisations
warned that the trade deal would have detrimental effects on the climate,
biodiversity, labour and human rights.
In their founding
statement, the coalition said that the deal was based on an outdated 20th
century model of trade that “serves corporate interests at the expense of
planetary boundaries and animal welfare and drives untenable social
inequalities.”
Although the
ratification of the EU-Mercosur Agreement is currently on pause, the ICHR warns
that the trade deal poses a detrimental risk to the environment and human
rights.
The EU needs to
implement stricter standards before any trade deal, which would mean companies
would know where commodities are coming from and introduce due diligence to
ensure industries are legally responsible for their supply chain, Dr Laura
Kehoe told The Green News.
“It’s like we live in
this story whereby its money versus the health of the planet. How have we
disassociated ourselves so far to think that destroying the Amazon rainforest
and our very own climate stability, would in some way be an economic gain, it’s
just not,” said Ms Kehoe speaking to The Green News.
The EU-Mercosur trade deal also excludes any human rights clause, which normally exists within EU trade agreements.
By entering the agreement, the EU would willingly commit to a trade deal where there are known human rights abuses of indigenous peoples in slavery and forced labour.
Two years
on from when the trade was struck in 2019, it is unclear when – or whether – it
will enter into force due to Europe’s concern over the Amazon Rainforest
deforestation and skepticism about Brazil’s commitment to tackling climate
change.
If the trade deal is
passed by the European Union, a unanimous vote in the Council is needed on the
agreement, and it must then be voted on by the European Parliament.
The final stage of
the agreement is the subsequent ratification from all Member States.
Story by Shauna Burdis
The post What’s the deal with the EU-Mercosur trade agreement? appeared first on Green News Ireland.
