Adding fuel to the climate crisis: the EU-Mercosur agreement
Amidst faltering global (trade) structures, the Euro
pean Commission is working feverishly to ratify a
trade deal that it has been negotiating for over a
quarter of a century: the EU Mercosur Partnership
Agreement. The pressure to seal this accord is enor
mous. For European officials, it is the answer to the
collapse of the Western style rules based world
order – a lifeline, a stabiliser. In view of US President
Donald Trump’s erratic (tariff) policy, the Commis
sion’s solution is to conclude as many trade agree
ments as possible, as quickly as possible. These deals
are the geopolitical sword with which the European
Union is setting out to defend the established inter
national division of labour from which it has bene
fited for decades – a division of labour whose roots
lie in the colonial exploitation and destruction of
countless countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
The trade agreement with the four South American
countries in Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay
and Uruguay) is one of the most glaring examples
of this. Once in force, it will deepen existing trade
inequalities, with devastating consequences for
nature and the social fabric of Mercosur countries.
The prevailing production model there, which is
based on the extraction of raw materials and the
export of agricultural goods (to the EU), is causing
massive deforestation of rainforests, species extinc
tion and the displacement of rural populations and
Indigenous communities.
In light of the imminent ratification of the agree
ment, this publication provides an overview of the
consequences of the EUMercosur agreement in re
lation to deforestation, environmental destruction
and climate change. It examines the newly inserted
clauses on the Paris Climate Agreement, the re
balancing mechanism and the deal’s implications for
forest protection against the backdrop of the cur
rent wave of deregulation at the EU level. In addition,
it presents concrete figures on the carbon footprint
of main goods promoted by the agreement and
ends with recommendations to bring trade in line
with European climate targets.
