On Thursday 11 February, against the background of the resumption of discussions on ratification of the trade agreement between the EU and the Mercosur countries, three agricultural organisations launched a new social network campaign to explain the fears created by this agreement within the agricultural community (see EUROPE 12650/21).
In a video (https://bit.ly/3aQH6pM ), the EU’s agricultural organisations and cooperatives (Copa-Cogeca), the International Confederation of European Beet Growers (CIBE) and ‘AVEC’ (EU poultry producers) explain why they oppose this free trade agreement.
“As it stands, this agreement is unacceptable to EU farmers at a time when they will have to find solutions to respond the European Green Deal objectives”, they say.
The reasons they give are: - the agreement with Mercosur is “unbalanced”, especially for fragile agricultural sectors such as beef; - EU farmers fear the “cumulative and hardly measurable impacts” of all the agreements already signed and those still to come (each year, poultry imports from Mercosur countries will be equivalent to the combined production of Denmark, Finland and Sweden); - Europe will import sugar and ethanol that do not meet EU production standards. Brazil uses 27 herbicides and insecticides that are banned in Europe. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)