More than 170 civil society organisations call for a fair alternative to the toxic EU-Mercosur agreement
10.05.2023: A broad coalition of civil society organisations from South America and Europe reiterates its call to stop the EU-Mercosur agreement and opposes attempts to greenwash with the agreement. It calls on EU and Mercosur countries to engage in a different type of cooperation based on cooperation, solidarity, equality, democracy and sustainability.
The EU-Mercosur agreement is an outdated trade agreement that exemplifies the EU's neoliberal trade agenda, according to the declaration's more than 170 signatory organisations. “Solidarity, equality, cooperation and sustainable trade: an alternative to the EU-Mercosur Agreement”. “We need a strong and reliable relationship with Mercosur! Cooperation instead of competition and solidarity instead of exploitation should be the guiding principles for EU-Mercosur relations. Instead of relationships shaped by the interests of transnational corporations, we need a model of economic and political cooperation that is geared to people’s needs, public services of general interest, care work, food sovereignty and sustainability”, says Theresa Kofler of Anders Handel Austria.
The EU-Mercosur agreement is unbalanced: Transnational companies benefit in particular from unbalanced market opening (including public procurement), while people in Mercosur face the consequences of unfair trade policies.
The recently leaked addendum to the EU-Mercosur agreement offers only cosmetic but not effectively enforceable adjustments.
“The risks posed by the EU-Mercosur Agreement cannot be mitigated by the recent EU legislation on: Deforestation-free supply chains be contained”, explains Stephanie Ghislain, Policy Officer at Eurogroup for Animals. “The unconditional trade liberalisation provided for in the EU-Mercosur Agreement will drive the intensification of livestock farming. Legislation ignores many biomes that, like the Amazon rainforest, are also destroyed by intensive animal husbandry.”
For these reasons, more than 170 civil society organisations from South America and Europe reject the agreement and reject the attempts to save it as mere greenwashing of the agreement.
“The EU-Mercosur Agreement is directly at odds with climate action, food sovereignty and respect for human rights. We need a U-turn in EU trade policy and a stronger focus on a sustainable and social relationship based on solidarity, democracy and justice”, said Bettina Müller, Trade Officer at PowerShift e.V.
Press contact:
Bettina Müller, Trade and Investment Policy Officer at PowerShift e.V.
bettina.mueller@power-shift.de
0049 174 4537604
