Strasbourg, 08/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - With the approach of the EU-Brazil summit in Brasilia on 14 July, when the issue will be on the agenda, the European Parliament (EP), in its plenary session debate, repeated the concerns expressed over the last few weeks on the threat to European agriculture of the resumption of negotiations on a free trade agreement between the EU and the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela). Following the proposal by the European Commission at the start of May (see EUROPE 10133) and agreement on the sidelines of the EU-Latin America summit in Madrid on 18 May, high-ranking officials returned to the negotiating table in Buenos Aires from 29 June to 2 July.
At their meeting on 1 June, members of the EP agriculture committee from all political groups criticised the Commission decision to restart talks (see EUROPE 10158). Mairead McGuinness (EPP, Ireland), George Lyon (ALDE, UK), James Nicholson (ECR, UK), José Bové (Greens/EFA, France) and Luis Manuel Capoulas Santos (S&D, Portugal), who put an oral question to the Commission, once again sounded the alarm on Thursday, with Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht in the Chamber. Nicholson said that many people had been surprised by the decision, and suggested that the Commission would have been better advised to consult the Parliament beforehand. He warned that if the Commission continued to act in this fashion, MEPs would man the barricades. He highlighted failings on the South American side on traceability, health standards and animal welfare. “Re-opening negotiations with Mercosur when the EU is about to redefine its agricultural policy displays a dangerous lack of joined up thinking on the part of the Commission … which, once again, is trading off its agriculture and its farmers for uncertain benefits for services companies,” Bové added. Lyon went on to say that resuming talks raised great concern, and that Europe had to maintain its forms of production. The European Parliament, said McGuinness, imposes very high standards for food production, and she argued that the EP must not allow any agreement with Mercosur to harm production in the EU, just as the CAP (common agricultural policy) was being reformed. She said that the negotiating mandate granted in 1999 had been overtaken by events, and criticised the fact that the Commission had not presented an impact assessment, spoke of the loss of jobs that an agreement would bring throughout rural Europe and raised the issues of deforestation and change of land use in the Mercosur countries.
Her Greek EPP colleague Georgios Papstamkos noted that the EU already has an agricultural trade deficit with Mercosur. “The Commission decided, without any prior public debate, to relaunch negotiations, the consequences of which might be catastrophic for our agriculture, and especially our livestock farming. Beef imports will increase by 70%, poultry imports by 25%. They will flood into Europe at lower costs, because they are not produced to the same social, health and environmental standards,” added Marielle de Sarnez (ALDE, France). “We are worried. There is a fear that an agreement will have severe effects on many agricultural sectors,” said Elie Hoarau (GUE/NGL, France), urging the Commission to carry out an impact assessment. “If these negotiations lead to an agreement, European agricultural producers will face problems in several sectors - beef, poultry, fruit and vegetables and pork,” said Marc Tarabella (S&D, France), warning against “unfair competition”. “When the EU is a pioneer on health, traceability, care for the environment and social standards, and imposes extremely stringent cross-compliance criteria on its producers, while accepting imports from Mercosur which do not meet European standards, we might have to assume a heavy responsibility in the defence of our consumers' interests and to penalise our producers,” he added.
In the face of such criticism, De Gucht underlined what an agreement with Mercosur would bring, both politically, since the association agreement would help strengthen regional integration in South America, and economically, generating considerable benefits for both regions. “We are talking about a growing partner for our exports, one as important as India, Canada, or South Korea,” he said, pointing out that EU exports to Mercosur had already increased 15% annually and that the South American block attracted more European investment than China, India and Russia combined. He also highlighted the EU's substantial offensive agricultural interests in the wine, cheese, fruit and vegetable sectors and on protection of geographical indications. Defending the validity of the negotiating brief, De Gucht also promised to consult the other institutions, and said that the EU agriculture offer to Mercosur would be determined within his departments and those of his colleague at agriculture, Dacian Cioloº. Lastly, the Commissioner gave assurances that the relaunch of talks with Mercosur “in no way undermines the EU's commitment to concluding the Doha Round”. (E.H./transl.rt)