These 3 explosive measures imposed on France by the EU-Mercosur treaty

Within the countries of the European Union, the Mercosur-EU Treaty creates eacute;ee much political turmoil. For farmers, the measures it provides are very much feared.

“France will not sign this Mercosur treaty as it stands,” Emmanuel Macron told the press on Sunday, November 17, on the tarmac before flying to Rio de Janeiro, where the G20 is being held from Monday to Tuesday. This treaty, for which many farmers are demonstrating throughout France, is a draft free trade agreement between the European Union and the countries of the “Mercado Comun del Sur” (Mercosur), a trade bloc comprising Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia. If concluded, it would become the EU's largest free trade agreement, with 800 million people affected and €40 billion to €45 billion in imports and exports.

This agreement should allow French and European companies to export more industrial products and services to Mercosur countries. In return, South American producers will be able to export more food and agricultural products to the EU. It is often presented, schematically, as a “meat for cars” agreement.

First of all, this project has been arousing strong concerns for years due to the massive arrival of South American foodstuffs on the French market. The first explosive measure of this agreement is the elimination of customs duties on the importation of several products: on 45,000 tons of honey, 60,000 tons of rice or 180,000 tons of sugar.

Although France is the most vehement in its opposition, many European countries have mobilized to make their disagreements heard. The conditions of competition are thus deemed unfair in view of the way in which foodstuffs are produced on South American territory. Indeed, their agricultural products do not meet European environmental, health and social standards, creating unequal export conditions between the two partners for some observers: “With this agreement, our meat will be left on our hands… And livestock farming will already be completely dead!”, predicts the president of the Rural Coordination, Véronique le Floc'h in Le Figaro.

A "disastrous impact" for French agriculture

This is also the second shock measure of the agreement with Mercosur: it provides for quotas of 99,000 tonnes of Latin American beef, taxed at 7.5%, quotas of 60,000 tonnes of beef and quotas of 180,000 tonnes of poultry exempt from customs duties. This significant reduction in tariff barriers is worrying the entire European agricultural sector, which is required to meet higher quality standards and whose production costs are higher.

Despite the economic gains for the EU, due to The massive export of industrial products and services to South America, such as wine, cars or olive oil, many countries fear negative effects on the environment and health. This is the third shock measure of this agreement: the increase in imports of meat, ethanol and soybeans make agricultural monoculture the supposedly most profitable. Monoculture is, however, one of the major drivers of deforestation in the Amazon and in the Cerrado.

Furthermore, the “conditionalities” on the sectors concerned are not guaranteed.” In theory, meat treated with antibiotics and growth hormones, for example, cannot enter, but in practice traceability is imperfect. There are slaughterhouse audits organised with the Commission, but it is not easy to follow the livestock before this stage. Tracing from birth to “slaughter, in Mercosur, this only exists in Uruguay,” explains economist Stefan Ambec to Le Figaro.

In 2020, Stefan Ambec already stressed in a report that the economic gains of the agreement would not offset its environmental costs due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions. greenhouse effect and deforestation caused by the increase in South American exports.

Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who denounces the “disastrous impact” of the Mercosur-EU treaty “on entire sectors of agriculture and livestock farming”, refuses to allow the country to accept it “under current conditions”. Despite All in all, France, if it is alone, is incapable of blocking the ratification of this agreement. On the other hand, it can succeed in convincing other countries: if it brings together at least four of them, it will be able to prevent its adoption by the European Union.