Negotiations on the EU-Mercosur common free trade agreement have been halted, confirmed French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday following the European Council meeting, effectively cancelling an EU Commissioner’s trip hours before he was meant to travel to Brazil to sign it.
Read the original French article here.
The rules on reciprocity concerning environmental and social standards are not acceptable to European farmers, said Macron, reiterating his opposition to the current state of the EU-Mercosur agreement.
Farmers protested in Brussels on Thursday, demanding a halt, or at least a retreat, to free trade, particularly with Mercosur states (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay).
And so, Macron confirmed that negotiations would pause for the time being, even though EU Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis was set to travel to Brazil at the end of the week.
Negotiations were primarily concluded in 2019 before the signing process was halted due to the positions of Brazilian President Jaïr Bolsonaro on deforestation. Discussions resumed with the election of President Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva in 2022.
The agreement could have been signed in July 2023, but France was already blocking its signature. The text lacked mirror clauses, i.e. reciprocity rules on environmental and social issues, said French diplomacy.
“I said it very clearly to Lula a few weeks ago, I said it to my counterparts […], and I said it again today […] France opposes and will continue to oppose [to the agreement as it stands]”, declared Emmanuel Macron on Thursday.
The President had also spoken to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“Of course, we are defending the legitimate interests of farmers in trade negotiations, in particular by ensuring fair rules for the standards to be respected in trade agreements”, she said after the European Council.
Reviewing the European approach
Macron calls for an “in-depth review of the European logic and approach”.
As a result, “we are in favour of new-generation negotiating models such as those with New Zealand and Chile”, as opposed to the one with Mercosur, which he deems “anachronistic”. The agreement has been in the drawer since the 1990s.
As Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced earlier, France wants the EU to set up a “European control force for product imports”.
The measure may not be well received on the other side of the Atlantic. Back in July, when negotiations during the EU-CELAC summit broke down, the Mercosur heads of state criticised the EU’s “mistrust” of their ability to enforce sufficient sustainability rules in their countries.
The sound of tractors
In Europe, the tractors are rumbling. So if “we don’t do this”, i.e. tax imported products according to the same rules as European products, “the extremes will rise”, said Macron.
If the latest polls for the European elections are anything to go by, this is a fact.
What is needed, he argues, is “a position of coherence, clarity and solidity” supported by the whole of the EU because France alone will not be able to fight for long, not least because it does not have the legal power to block the agreement.
Nevertheless, French political weight is certain, believed Macron.
“Every time we have pointed out the inconsistencies [in this agreement], we have been followed”, referring to the blocking of negotiations last July.
The president concluded by confirming that the visit of Dombrovskis to Brazil had been cancelled.
“The Vice-President was going there to sign [the agreement]. Well, he didn’t sign it”, Macron concluded.
(Paul Messad | Euractiv.fr)
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