Brussels has seen several delegations of Brazilians come and go in recent days to discuss trade relations with the European Union, in particular the EU/Mercosur trade agreement.
Following the election of Lula da Silva as President of Brazil in October (see EUROPE 13054/5), the European Commission is finalising its instrument on the environment and sustainable development which will be annexed to the trade agreement, and on which it also wants to consult the European Parliament and the Member States (see EUROPE 13051/25).
Lula da Silva has indicated in the media in recent weeks that he wants to “improve the terms of the agreement”, and several sources understand that Brazil would potentially like to reopen negotiations. The European Commission has so far refused to consider this possibility, given the difficulties in concluding the negotiations. These were started in 2000 and only closed in June 2019 (see EUROPE 12285/5, 12286/3).
Pros and cons
On 8 November, Friends of the Earth Europe welcomed representatives of Brazilian indigenous associations and communities to present their expectations for the future of the EU/Mercosur Agreement.
Luana Hanauer of Friends of the Earth Brazil believes that the negotiations on the agreement must be reopened. “These non-binding environmental clauses attached to the agreement will not uphold human or environmental rights”, she said.
Alongside her, human rights lawyer Emiliano Maldonado called the EU/Mercosur agreement ‘neo-colonial’. According to him, it has the potential to destroy the way of life of thousands of people, especially indigenous people.
Brazilian producers, on the other hand, are anxious to see the agreement succeed. “There is an opportunity to conclude the agreement. I think the new government will be interested in this and maybe the European Commission will be too”, André Nassar, Executive President of the Brazilian Vegetable Oil Industries Association (Abiove), told EUROPE. The accompanying instrument to be proposed by the Commission is not a problem, he said, “as long as it does not focus 100% on deforestation”.
This is not the main issue, according to Nassar and the president of the National Commission for Cereals, Fibres and Oilseeds and farmer Ricardo Manoel, Arioli Silva, whom EUROPE also met.
The latter produces bean sprouts in Brazil and its production, like that of all Brazilian farmers, is subject to a strict framework to avoid deforestation, he argued.
Seven MEPs from the Greens/EFA group in the Committee on International Trade sent a letter to the European Commission on Thursday 11 November asking it to forward the document on the additional instrument to the agreement to the European Parliament.
See the MEPs’ letter: https://aeur.eu/f/44o (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)