The EU needs raw materials – and to this end, it is signing more and more trade agreements to ensure its access to lithium, copper and co. At the end of February, the vote on the EU-Chile trade and investment agreement will be on the agenda of the EU Parliament. The EU Commission speaks of a partnership on an equal footing, while civil society organisations from the EU and Chile denounce the neocolonial nature of the agreement.
More than 500 civil society organisations and personalities from the EU and Latin America have already met in advance with a explanation and one Open letter to MEPs to ask them to vote against the agreement. In doing so, they highlight the increasing mining of raw materials such as lithium and copper without sufficient safeguards and compliance with standards, and criticize the newly introduced group lawsuits as well as the further mining of tariffs for agricultural products. It is not for nothing that many of the current protests by smallholder farmers are explicitly directed against the signing of further free trade agreements.
In this episode, moderator Antonia Vangelista talks to Bettina Müller, trade officer at PowerShift, about what exactly the agreement says and what impact it would have on people and the environment.
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To listen and read more:
- publication on the EU-Chile Agreement
- Podcast sequence #44 on raw materials and trade policy
- publication on the role of trade agreements in securing European raw materials
