A special kind of country. Brazil is a special sort of country: across the world, and in Europe in particular, it enjoys matchless “friendship capital”. Everything contributes to this: things that can at first sight seem trivial (but are more significant than the over-serious believe), like the atmosphere of the Rio Carnival or the world popularity of the champions of football, and its undeniable contributions to civilisation and culture, such as its role as a pioneer in practising of a certain amount of racial equality or musical development uniting the classical tradition and popular music (“Bachianes brasileiras” by Vila-Lobos). Challenging some of Brazil's stances and demands with regard to Europe, in no way affects this friendship capital nor the desire to work more and more closely with Brazil. One is not “anti-Brazil” for saying that Europe should reject the proposal for a free trade zone including agriculture, in the same way as calling for China to abide by international rules does not diminish the admiration one has for the only civilisation on Earth that remains itself through the millennia.
Threats to the world's environment. Last year, Brazil built up a trade surplus of $33 billion, thanks to the boom in its agricultural exports. But the conditions of this boom are in part questionable. Intensive farming of soya, maize, sugar cane for export basically make large landowners wealthy (30,000 people own half the land) while small farmers cannot find work because of these intensive crops and mechanisation. In addition, this development is dangerous from the environmental point of view, because most of these new extensive crops reduce the forested and aquatic zones in the Amazon Basin. The most visible result is the accumulation of capital in the private sector because of exports. Large landowners increasingly have the means to defend their interests both internally and at world level. Last May, I wrote in this column (bulletin no. 9196) that Europe should take account of “the overall interests of humanity and the environment and not only of large retailers, or of some huge multinationals or a few large land owners”, while noting that remarks of this kind were not well received either by those concerned or in political circles which prefer flights of lyricism to reality or (as I have experienced) in some university circles. To this list, I could add some non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The desire by President Lula to implement agrarian reform is not in doubt, but he is confronted with very strong forces and internal lobbies. On the external level, he is moving increasingly towards links with other emerging countries, like China, India and South Africa. This is perfectly logical given the political affinities and the potential for cooperation. Integration within Mercosur has encountered some difficulties (free trade is not always respected, including by Argentina) but the prospects for cooperation and trade are increasing: oil from Venezuela in exchange for soya or meat principally from Brazil or Argentina, colossal investment such as for the planned gas pipeline from Venezuela to Buenos Aires.
The role of Europe. In this context, Europe can play a key role, in the area of trade too, if it replaces myth with reality. Neither Brazil nor Argentina will ever agree to the range of commitments and liberalisations set out in the European Parliament resolution on negotiations between Mercosur and the EU (see yesterday's column), and, from its side, Europe cannot consider full or virtually full opening of its agricultural market if it wishes to avoid ecological and social collapse. Just look at Mercosur demands, summarised in our edition of 13 September: levy-free quotas of 3.5 million tonnes of maize, one million tonnes of wheat, 30,000 tonnes of beef, 250,000 tonnes of poultry, 200,000 tonnes of sugar and so on, increasing annually. This would destroy agriculture in the EU, the same EU which is the world's largest donor of food aid and whose population has too much food, when food shortages and threats of famine are to be found throughout the world. All this for the benefit of major retailers and large landowners! And at a time when a virtually limitless perspective for biofuels, led by Brazilian ethanol, is opening up, and the future of the Earth rooted in the battle against global warming. The interests of humanity and of Nature must come first.
(F.R.)