Berlin, 29 September: Twenty-five years ago, the EU concluded its first trade agreement with a Latin American country, Mexico. Almost all countries in the region now have trade agreements with the EU and more are to follow, including the EU-Mercosur trade agreement recently proposed for ratification by the European Commission and a modernised agreement with Mexico. Against this background, PowerShift today publishes a report highlighting the European Union's trade agenda in Latin America. The report, presented on an interactive overview page, provides an in-depth insight into the existing trade agreements between the EU and Latin American countries and analyses their environmental and socio-economic consequences. It also sets out concrete proposals on how to make trade fairer.
In this context, a transatlantic campaign has been running since 16 September under the motto: ‘Stop toxic trade agreements’. More than 50 organisations and social movements from 17 countries in Latin America and Europe show the negative consequences of the agreements: environmental degradation, social inequality, the loss of smallholder structures and the erosion of labour and human rights. They call for a halt to the planned agreements and a fundamental revision of the already existing ones. The new overview page provides background information, takes a critical stock of more than 25 years of trade agreements and makes concrete political alternatives visible. In addition to illustrative examples from various Latin American countries, the site bundles numerous publications by PowerShift and invites you to delve deeper into the effects of European trade policy.
The page can be found here: https://power-shift.de/die-handelsagenda-der-eu-in-lateinamerika/
If you have any questions, please contact:
- Bettina Müller, Trade and Investment Policy Officer at PowerShift, bettina.mueller@power-shift.de, 0174 4537604
