EU-Mercosur Agreement: An outdated trade deal that fuels the climate crisis
On 28 In June 2019, after 20 years of negotiations, the European Union and Mercosur countries Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay concluded talks on the EU-Mercosur Trade and Association Agreement. However, although trade agreements negotiated today set the framework for economic exchanges over the coming decades, the EU-Mercosur agreement marginalises the global significance of the climate crisis and provides little response to address it. While the Paris Agreement is mentioned in the non-sanctioned sustainability chapter, the content and impact of the trade agreements set out in the rest of the text are blatantly at odds with climate objectives. The entry into force of the agreement would consolidate and deepen a non-sustainable and unbalanced relationship between the two economic blocs.
The study by Dr Luciana Ghiotto and Dr Javier Echaide provides a comprehensive overview of the agreements and mechanisms contained in the multi-hundred-page agreement. It is also concerned with possible effects should the agreement enter into force. It covers all previously published chapters, deals with changes in trade flows in the area of goods and services, regulation, standards and non-tariff barriers. The study is based on a textual analysis of the agreement as well as the evaluation of secondary literature, impact assessments and analyses of the positions of various stakeholders on the agreement.
