If Germany and Spain firmly support the agreement with Mercosur, France is trying to rally a blocking minority to stop the process. She hopes to gain support from Italy, Austria, Poland and the Netherlands.
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As negotiators from all sides of the Mercosur deal begin a new round of negotiations this week ahead of a meeting in Uruguay on December 5 and 6during which many hope that the agreement can be concluded, France is intensifying its attempts to rally the support of Italy, Austria, Poland and the Netherlands in order to stop the process.
After 25 years of negotiations, the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement still does not enjoy the unanimous support of Member States, as fears about the future of agricultural sector clash with the strategic needs of the Union.
A political agreement was reached on June 28, 2019 to open trade between the 27 EU member states and the four founding members of the South American bloc, namely Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. (Bolivia joined Mercosur in 2024 and therefore did not take part in previous negotiations).
The agreement aims to establish one of the world's largest free trade zones, encompassing 750 million people and approximately a fifth of the world economy.
France remains firmly opposed to the agreement, but will have to persuade four countries representing 35% of the European population to prevent Mercosur from passing once an agreement has been signed by Commission negotiators.
Germany and Spain are leading a coalition of 11 states in favor of the agreement and eager to find new opportunities, at a time when Donald Trump is threatening the European Union with a trade war and where the EU wants to reduce its dependence on the Chinese market.
“The reasons why we have doubts are shared well beyond France“, specifies a French diplomat to Euronews, confident that his country will manage to convince others to oppose the agreement.
The Ministries of Agriculture of Poland and Italy have expressed their reservations about the prospect of an agreement with Mercosur in recent weeks. The Polish ministry issued a public statement suggesting that the trade deal would jeopardize its agricultural sector and particularly poultry. Last week, Italian Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida demanded that Mercosur farmers be subject to the same “obligations” than their EU counterparts and declared that the treaty, in its current form, was “unacceptable“.
Ireland, fifth world beef exporteris also very concerned about the compromise, fearing that competition could halve prices in its main European markets, such as France. Belgian farmers also protested against the trade deal.
However, it remains to be seen whether these countries will join France and try to defeat the text.
The position of the Polish Minister of Agriculture has not been confirmed by his government. More recently, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, tempered the comments of his colleague from Agriculture, explaining that he was in favor of the agreement on the condition that it “does not harm Italian agriculture“.
An official from the French Ministry of Commerce told Euronews that Paris hoped that once the Italian European commissioner-designate, Raffaele Fitto, was officially confirmed by the European Parliament this Wednesday, Rome would line up behind the opponents of the text.
The Austrian Parliament came out against the deal as it stood in 2019, and reiterates its position in 2021.”If there was something new in the agreement, we should talk about it again. He remains very open “, assures an Austrian diplomat to Euronews.
The Commission has downplayed the risks for agriculture that could arise from this compromise.
“In fragile sectors, we have set volumes that can be absorbed by the markets“, an EU official pointed out to journalists in mid-November. He suggested that the increase in imports of beef resulting from the agreement would not exceed 99,000 tonnes per yearor around 1.6% of total EU production, 25,000 tonnes (0.1%) for pork and 188,000 tonnes (1.4%) for poultry.
France is also advancing environmental arguments against the agreement, explaining that Mercosur's standards are lower than those of the Europeans.
“We want the Paris agreement to be an essential clause of the agreement“, insisted Sophie Primas, French Minister of Commerce, upon her arrival last week in Brussels for a meeting of EU Trade Ministers.
France also courts the Netherlands. In 2020, the lower house of the Dutch Parliament voted against the Mercosur agreement. The Dutch minister in charge of the file, Reinette Klaver, reiterated her concerns during the meeting of 27 trade ministers last week.
“The lower house is very critical of the agreement and in particular the part relating to agriculture“, she told the press.
At the same time, Germany and Spain strongly support the agreement. According to Lora Verheecke, professor of European trade policy at the Catholic University of Lille, Germany expects the deal to boost its exports.
“For Germany, this clearly concerns exports of cars, but also of chemicals, pharmaceuticals and pesticides. And for Spain we have agricultural exports, but rather agricultural products with high added value. We think of olive oil and Serrano ham“, she explains.
With the meeting looming at the end of next week in Uruguay, lobbying from all parties should therefore intensify.
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