Global trade contributes negatively to sustainable development goals, according to a report by Coriolis Technologies

MEP Saskia Bricmont (Greens/EFA, Belgian) organised a debate on Thursday 29 September on the impact of international trade on the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A study by the analysis provider Coriolis Technologies was presented, according to which the effects of trade are rather negative on the SDGs. The European Commission attempted to defend its trade policy. 

Coriolis Technologies has measured that international trade has more negative than positive effects on the achievement of the SDGs. The authors of the study estimate that around 80% of the total value of world trade is unsustainable. 

However, the results of the study are questionable, according to Pierre Ecochard, an analyst at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade. In the discussion, he regretted the absence of countermeasures with which trade flows could have been compared in the study. 

For example, in the case of oil imports into the EU, these flows should be compared with a measure that would replace these imports, he said. 

He also called on his interlocutors not to “demonise trade”.

Using the example of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, Pierre Ecochard sought to dispel the myth of the potential and dangerous increase in meat imports and the deforestation that is often its corollary, particularly in Brazil. Studies by the Commission show that the trade agreement would not lead to further deforestation, as the meat imported by the EU comes from Brazilian regions that were deforested decades ago, he said. 

However, Saskia Bricmont countered that studies had shown the opposite, namely that the Free Trade Agreement would contribute to deforestation.

Ratification of the EU-Mercosur agreement is on hold following the reluctance of several countries and the European Parliament. The European Commission is working on additional environmental safeguards and hopes to agree on these with Brazil once its presidential elections are over.

See the Coriolis Technologies study: https://aeur.eu/f/3bs (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)