80+ organisations called for a halt to the EU-Mexico trade agreement
Berlin, 8 July 2026: While the World Cup is still underway in Mexico, European MPs today voted in favour of a trade agreement between the Latin American country and the EU that subordinates environmental protection and human rights to unilateral corporate interests.
In a statement, more than 80 civil society organisations from Latin America and the EU called on European elected officials not to respond to geopolitical pressure with a bad trade agreement. This only deepens the unequal relations between the economic areas. Sustainable development, misrepresentation!
Bettina Müller, Trade and Investment Policy Officer at Berlin-based NGO PowerShift, explains:
“The EU-Mexico trade agreement lags significantly behind other agreements recently concluded by the EU with countries in the region. Instead of a real modernization, the privileges for corporations were extended above all. Environmental and human rights standards remain non-binding, while companies receive very specific access rights, e.g. in the area of public tenders in Mexico. At the same time, tariffs on agricultural products will be further reduced. This weakens smallholder agriculture in Mexico. The agreement also makes it easier for European companies to access Mexican raw materials. These are just a few of the reasons why PowerShift and numerous other organizations agree: This agreement is not modern, but has fallen out of time. It deepens existing inequalities between economic areas and is poisonous to the environment and our climate. We need more cooperation with Mexico, but not in the form of this unfair and harmful trade agreement.”
Jan Königshausen, speaker for Indigenous Peoples from the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) adds:
“The EU celebrates the new free trade agreement with Mexico as a forward-looking step in economic cooperation. In doing so, it ignores the resulting social and environmental costs. European businesses are benefiting, indigenous communities are increasingly being pushed out of their territories. At the same time, the ecological diversity of the coastal area suffers. The Yoreme-Mayo in the Mexican state of Sinaloa tirelessly defend their territory against the construction of an ammonia factory of the Swiss-German company Proman in Topolobampo. The agreement legitimizes the exploitation of resources in a sustainable way. Indigenous peoples are confronted with the loss of their territories, the endangerment of their ways of life and livelihoods. Communities that oppose it are intimidated.”
The full statement against the agreement can be found here: https://europeantradejustice.org/stop-the-modernised-global-and-free-trade-agreement-between-the-european-union-and-mexico/
For interviews and questions, please do not hesitate to contact us: Bettina Müller, 0174 4537605, bettina.mueller@power-shift.de
