Why a contentious EU trade deal with

South America could benefit

European farmers
From France to Romania, European farmers are taking to the streets
over competition, taxes, climate regulations and red tape. One major
sticking point is the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement.

Why a contentious EU trade deal with

South America could benefit
European farmers
From France to Romania, European farmers are taking to the streets
over competition, taxes, climate regulations and red tape. One major
sticking point is the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement.
Days after demonstrations erupted in several EU countries, famers gathered in front of the European Parliament on Wednesday to protest the bloc’s
agricultural policies.

T he Europe-wide protests have reached the Belgian capital. Days after

demonstrations erupted in France, Germany and other countries across the Continent,
famers gathered in front of the European Parliament in

Brussels on Wednesday to protest the bloc’s agricultural policies – with some

denouncing the potential impacts of a European trade deal with South America.

The nascent agreement with South America’s Mercosur trade bloc – which includes
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – was reached in 2019 after two decades of
negotiations. And while the pact has yet to be ratified, Mercosur states are pushing to
seal the deal by next month, according to a recent Politico report.
But many European farmers fear they will be disadvantaged by it, as their agricultural
products are forced to compete with South American imports. For farmers like Helen
O’Sullivan and Ana Mahe of the Farmers Alliance, a recently launched Irish political
party, the Mercosur deal also signifies fresh regulations from Brussels and a raft of
unnecessary environmental challenges.

“There’s just too much red tape coming from the European Union,” O’Sullivan, a
co-founder of the party, said in front of the EP on Wednesday. “If the Mercosur deal
does go through, that would mean that 99,000 tonnes of tariff-free beef are flooding into
the EU. And so what about the carbon footprint of that?” Ireland, she argued, is “the
most sustainable country in the whole world to produce food. We should be made the
food island of Europe.”

Her colleague, Mahe, added: “It makes zero sense in terms of climate change,
emissions reductions or food security in Europe, or healthy food for Europeans... why
would you import beef from Brazil when it’s on your doorstep?”

However, the details of the trade agreement paint a more nuanced picture, according to
Oscar Guinea, senior economist at the European Centre for International Political
Economy (ECIPE). The increased quota of beef that Mercosur farmers would export to
the EU is very small, Guinea said, and would not make or break the sector.

Moreover, he argued, the agreement would simply realign trade flows. “We might buy
more from Mercosur, but then less from other non-EU countries.”

From France to Romania, European farmers are taking to the streets over competition, taxes, climate
regulations and red tape. One major sticking point is the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement.

The agricultural sector is not the only group with objections to the trade deal.
Environmental NGOs have also raised concerns over the potential impact on the planet.
But Guinea argued that the environmental aspect should be viewed more holistically. A
broader free-trade agreement with South American countries would, for example, allow
the EU to export more energy-efficient and technologically advanced products to South
America.

For its part, the European Commission has said that EU farming communities would
benefit from the agreement because it removes trade barriers such as high tariffs – in
turn giving European producers access to the South American market.

“People in the Mercosur countries eat a lot of our products – our cheese, our wine,
high-end agricultural products that we produce in Europe,” Guinea said. Just as with
any trade agreement, he added, some sectors will lose out, while arguing that “overall
both economies will benefit, because they tend to specialise in what they do better.”
Spanish ham or prosciutto, for instance, would likely be highly attractive for South
American consumers.

Still, farmers gathering at the EP this week had concerns beyond the trade deal. Olivier
Senechel travelled to Brussels as part of the French farming union, Coordination
Rurale. “In France, the government has decided to tax the gasoline for the tractors;
something similar happened in Germany,” the 38-year-old from Nord-Pas-le Calais said.

Farmers across France have demonstrated in protest at taxes and environmental

regulations. Further protests are planned next week in the north of France, according to
Senechel.

Franc Bogovič, a member of the European People’s Party (EPP) and member of the
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, also joined the protests – as a
farmer himself and former agricultural minister of Slovenia.

While he lamented European and national regulations that have weighed on farmers
across the Continent, Bogovič argued that recent protests have been in part hijacked by
far-right parties seeking political gain ahead of the EP election in June.

Far-right parties arrive an “ d try to use this for

votes for the next election. I hope the followers will

recognise that we take care of them and bring
solutions
“Far-right parties arrive and try to use this for votes for the next election. I hope the
followers will recognise that we take care of them and bring solutions,” he said of the
centre-right EPP.

Irish farmer O'Sullivan, however, pushed back against pigeonholing protesting farmers
as representative of any political ideology. “There are too many labels going around.
Anyone that has a different narrative of the EU or our own government, is labelled as
far-right. We think this is wrong,” she said. “If you want to put a label on the Farmers
Alliance here in Brussels today, it’s the common-sense label.