The EU-Mercosur deal was first approved in 2019. Following significant backlash from various stakeholders, the European Commission (EC) has negotiated an additional protocol in an attempt to overcome clear environmental issues. However, the joint instrument announced today fails to offset the negative consequences the deal will have on animal cruelty, deforestation and human rights abuses.
Trade agreements, by granting extra market access without any further animal welfare related conditions, often have a negative impact on animals as they fuel the intensification of factory farming.
The 2019 agreement represented a huge precedent in the field of trade and animal welfare, as it conditioned, for the first time, the tariff-free imports of shell eggs to the respect of animal welfare standards equivalent to the EU’s laying hens directive. Yet this measure is largely symbolic, since the EU barely imports any shell eggs from Mercosur countries, and the requirement does not apply to egg products or other high-volume imports like beef and chicken meat.
If ratified, the EU-Mercosur FTA would grant Mercosur countries concessions to export significantly more poultry meat and beef. As the Mercosur countries often rely on intensive farming practices, such as feedlots for cattle and high stocking densities for broiler chickens, the agreement will further fuel animal cruelty in these countries. By incentivising more trade in meat derived from soy-fed animals, it is also likely to further contribute to deforestation, with devastating repercussions for wild animals.
With negotiations of this deal having started nearly 25 years ago, the agreement also contradicts the green objectives set up by the EU in recent years, which promised to use trade policy to obtain ambitious commitments from third partners on animal welfare. The FTA sends a counterproductive signal to European producers, jeopardising their efforts towards transitioning to sustainable food systems.
Until the EU applies its animal welfare standards to imports, as demanded by EU citizens, such unconditional FTAs should not be approved, as they will only aggravate the situation for animals.
Eurogroup for Animals urges EU Member States and the European Parliament to reject the EU-Mercosur agreement in its current form. It is also crucial that democratic scrutiny is upheld, by ensuring that national parliaments provide consent, as opposed to reports of a split agreement that could bypass this step.
Discussion about this post