Brussels, 15/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - European and international trade unions back the ongoing negotiations between the European Union, Mercosur and Chile for the conclusion of association and trade liberalisation agreements. In a press release, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the World Confederation of Labour (WFL) welcome progress made last week in these negotiations, progress that has the "potential to formalise the strong bond between the regions, based on shared commitments to democracy, sustainable development, and economic growth with social justice".
The international trade union organisations recall that the commitments of the EU/Latin America Summit of Rio in June 1999 in favour of social justice and human rights are as central to these negotiations as is the liberalisation of trade, and call on the negotiators to honour these commitments in the future agreement. Stressing that all countries participating in negotiations support the core labour standards of the International Labour Organisation, the trade unions call on the negotiators to explicitly include human and labour rights in the future agreement and use it as basis for including these subjects in the next WTO negotiating round.
For the trade unionists, the future agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, notably, seems much more promising than the project of a free-trade area of the Americas being negotiated between the 34 countries of the American continent. The agreement with the European Union goes beyond trade by including cooperation, and the commercial results should be more balanced than in negotiations with the United States, which already represents 73% of the continent's GDP, remarked Kjeld Jakobsen, Secretary for International Relations of the Central Unica de Trabahadores (CUT) of Brazil, in an interview with EUROPE.
However, Kjeld Jakobsen remarked, "for now, the Europeans have the advantage in trade flows between the EU and Mercosur and these are concentrated on agricultural products with low added value. If the future agreement does not change this state of affairs, it will present risks for sectors such as, notably the automobile, agri-food, information technology and electronics". For the international spokesman of the Brazilian trade union, "by placing emphasis on agriculture, the Brazilian Government gives the impression of not wanting a policy in the industrial and services sectors; yet, services is Brazil's foremost employment sector". For Kjeld Jakobsen, "there is a certain contradiction in the position of the government that criticises the EU because it protects its farmers that only represent 2% of Europe's working population, whereas even in Brazil, farmers only represent 18% of a population of 40 million".
The Brazilian private sector, on the other hand, attaches much more importance on the trans-American negotiations than on those begun with the EU. "Sure, Europe represents 40% of our exports, but negotiations over free-trade between the Americas cover more commercial fields and are much more advanced", said Sandra Rios, Coordinator for international integration of the National Confederation of Brazilian Industry, recalling that the nine negotiating groups of the free-trade area of the Americas have already been working with sector-specific negotiating briefs and intend reaching an initial draft agreement in April 2001.
"The United States has agreed to talk about all commercial subjects, including anti-dumping rules that limit our steel exports, whereas the EU still refuses to broach the subject of agricultural subsidies", remarks a senior official of the Brazilian Ministry of Industry and Development. "If the subject of agricultural subsidies that render our agri-food exports less competitive is not broached with the EU, negotiations are of no interest", said Maurice Costin, Director of the Department of International Relations, of the Federation of State Industries of Sao Paolo (FIESP). According to him, Mercosur's only interest is to be able to extend its agricultural exports, sector where it is more competitive at international level, which would enable it to redress the trade balance and, whence, the public debt.