Through a number of their ministers (including Agriculture and Foreign Affairs), Austria, France and Hungary have issued a joint press release expressing their concerns about the EU/Mercosur trade agreement. They are particularly concerned about the difference in standards for products that will be imported in greater quantities from Mercosur.
According to the Hungarian Minister of Agriculture, István Nagy, this could lead to “a squeeze on European agricultural products, reducing purchase prices and thus the profitability of agricultural production significantly”.
For her French counterpart, Annie Genevard, the current geopolitical uncertainty makes no difference to these findings. “An agreement that is bad remains bad”, she declared.
In the coming weeks, the European Commission is due to forward the text of the agreement to the Council for ratification. The Commission could then choose to separate the trade part from the rest of the agreement, in order to have it ratified more quickly.
France hopes to convince enough countries to vote against the agreement in order to achieve a blocking minority.
See the joint press release (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/h72 (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)