The EU-Mercosur trade deal must be stopped – NOW!
Recently, statements by Foreign Minister X. Bettel in the Chamber of Deputies on the so-called Mercosur agreement caused a wide range of reactions in the political arena.
This is a free trade agreement between the European Union and the MERCOSUR countries – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. A summit on the agreement is to be held in Montevideo on 4–5 December 2024.
In the run-up to this summit, 400 organisations from Europe and Latin America, including the Mouvement Ecologique and Action Solidarité Tiers Monde, are mobilising against the Mercosur agreement today, Thursday 28 November.
Our message is clear: the Mercosur agreement would have devastating consequences for people and the environment. The EU and Luxembourg must reject the agreement outright.
The following is the letter from the 400 signatory organisations, which Mouvement Ecologique and Action Solidarité Tiers Monde expressly support.
No more toxic trade deals between the EU and Latin American countries
We, the undersigned organisations from Latin America and the European Union, stand united in rejecting the EU-Mercosur trade deal. We call on policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic to finally stop this toxic trade agreement.
Negotiated for more than 25 years behind closed doors, this outdated trade deal lacks any public participation or scrutiny. Even the European Ombudsman has criticized the European Commission’s lack of transparency. The Commission is now considering changing the voting process through the “splitting” of the deal, allowing it to bypass individual country vetoes. Hundreds of civil society organizations and parliamentarians have condemned this manoeuvre as an assault on democratic processes. Worse, the groups most affected—workers, small-scale farmers, indigenous communities, and women—have been excluded from shaping this deal, and yet will suffer its worst effects.
A toxic deal for people and the planet
This agreement will exacerbate the unequal exchange between the Global South and North, perpetuating neo-colonial trade structures. It promotes destructive agricultural models that displace small farmers and indigenous communities while driving EU exports of toxic agrochemicals, even those which are banned in the EU. These unsustainable farming practices, including factory farming, threaten food sovereignty and animal welfare in both regions.
Workers in Mercosur countries will suffer job losses and worsening conditions. Women will lose even more in that regard, while they are also most affected by the privatisation of public services promoted through FTAs. Studies show that the deal poses severe economic risks, further deepening inequality and hindering sustainable development and (re-) industrialization in Mercosur countries.
No environmental annex can mitigate the long-term damage this deal will inflict; it’s mere greenwashing. The EU-Mercosur deal will drive deforestation, exacerbate the climate crisis, and push our regions further from climate justice.
No deal with far-right, climate-crisis denying presidents
This deal is being negotiated with governments led by climate-crisis deniers in Argentina and Paraguay, while forests – as a result of the massive deforestation for agribusiness – burn, and Brazil is hit by unprecedented droughts.
In Argentina, the self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei, who is an active member of the global extreme right movement, has plunged the country into misery. Poverty has soared to unprecedented highs, and basic rights are being crushed. Social justice protests are violently suppressed, while more than 60% of Argentine children go hungry, and essential services like education and healthcare are gutted. The combination of Milei’s disastrous policies and this outdated trade deal is a recipe for catastrophe.
Geopolitics can’t be fixed with neo-colonial trade deals
Politicians promoting this agreement to counter China’s influence in the Mercosur region are trapped in a free-trade ideology that prioritises corporate profits over people and the planet. Strengthening ties, while undeniably necessary, requires solidarity, equality, cooperation, sustainability, and democracy – not deepening trade asymmetries. This holds true not just for EU-Mercosur, but also for the “modernization” of the free trade agreements between the EU and Mexico and the EU and Chile, which are both equally problematic.
The solution is clear:
Policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic must honour their human rights, social, climate, and environmental commitments and stop these toxic trade negotiations immediately.
Another trade — based on solidarity, democracy, mutual cooperation and equality — is possible!
Stop EU-Mercosur NOW!
Action Solidarité Tiers Monde asbl
Mouvement Ecologique asbl
The joint press release by astm and Mouvement Ecologiuqe with the undersigned organisations can be found in the downloads on the right.
28.11.24
