On Thursday 13 November, ten EU farming organisations, as well as environmental and labour rights activists, denounced the “serious risks” posed by the EU-Mercosur trade agreement to EU food security, social standards and farmers’ incomes (see EUROPE 13750/10).
At an event organised by the EU’s agricultural organisations and cooperatives (Copa-Cogeca), these stakeholders once again criticised the expected duty-free imports of rice, poultry, beef, sugar, maize and ethanol, “much of which is produced to much lower standards than those required in the EU”.
Speakers criticised the 99,000-tonne beef quota granted to Mercosur countries and stressed the inadequacy of the safeguard clauses announced at the beginning of September. They argued in favour of ‘mirror clauses’ rather than the proposed safeguards. The current thresholds and triggers are either irrelevant or set so high that it would be almost impossible to activate them, offering no real protection to the sectors. Worse still, the inclusion of a single rebalancing mechanism demonstrates, according to the organisations, the EU’s inability to defend its own standards in this agreement. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)