Priority for corporate interests

The objectives and core elements of this Agreement are in direct conflict with climate action, food sovereignty and respect for human rights and animal welfare. The FTA will further promote the destruction and collapse of the biodiversity of the Amazon, Cerrado and Gran Chaco through the expansion of livestock and ethanol quotas and will continue an extractive agricultural model characterized by overgrazing, the expansion of fattening farms and chemically intensive monocultures. It would be a disastrous political signal that horrific human rights violations related to the supply chains laid out in this agreement are acceptable.

The trade agreement will destroy livelihoods in both Europe and South America and bring smallholder families and workers to their knees. It increases trade in agricultural commodities on the one hand and trade in polluting cars on the other, and therefore poses an immediate threat to jobs in the Mercosur countries. It continues the path dependency of South American economies as cheap exporters of raw materials obtained by destroying vital natural resources, rather than encouraging the development of healthy, diversified and resilient economies.

Sustainable trade policy is different

For a good future, a 21st century trade model must serve the efforts to create socially just and environmentally resilient societies based on the principles of solidarity, protection of human rights and our planetary boundaries, rather than undermining them. Across Europe and South America, citizens join forces against the EU-Mercosur agreement and are committed to a better future. We, the signatory organisations, are part of this movement calling on governments to stop the EU-Mercosur agreement!