The Mercosur deal, or free trade agreement between the European Union and South America, provides for free trade without import tariffs, and the situation around it is ambiguous. Supporters of the agreement believe it will open up wide opportunities for EU producers to export their goods to South America. In this respect, car manufacturers in Germany and other countries could become the main beneficiaries. Opponents of the agreement, on the other hand, are worried that this will bring genetically modified food into the EU, especially meat, which is also cheaper. As a result, EU producers will lose their competitiveness in the local market. Now this issue will have to be examined by the Court of Justice of the European Union.
“One can agree that this agreement is necessary for the European Union, as it opens up a huge market in which to sell its high value-added products. What is absolutely unacceptable is that EU manufacturers will skim all the cream from the agreement, while farmers will have to bear all the burden. EU farmers comply with the highest standards in the world: for example, it is forbidden to grow GMOs in the EU, a number of plant protection products are banned, there are the highest animal welfare requirements, and the climate footprint is monitored at all stages of production. For farmers in Mercosur countries all this is unfamiliar, yet the EU will have opened its doors to food from these countries and hopes that local farmers will be able to compete with it,” says “Zemnieku saeima” foreign policy specialist Valters Zelčs. He adds that, given the structure of import and export products, it is not clear why all EU farmers should pay so that a few “old Europe” car manufacturers have the possibility to export engineering products.
Yesterday and the day before, large-scale farmers’ protests also took place in Strasbourg. The vote was tight and highlighted a split in opinions. The legal review of the agreement was supported by 334 MEPs, 324 deputies voted “against”. 11 deputies abstained. Of the nine deputies from Latvia only one – Vilis Krištopans – voted in favour of referring the issue to the EU Court, the others did not object.
However, as Zelčs points out, farmers cannot relax yet, because referring the issue to the EU Court does not yet mean that it will be frozen for a year and a half. In Europe there is still a mechanism of provisional application, which means that the desired rule can be “tested”, i.e. applied, even before it has been approved by the European Parliament and also before the court has expressed its opinion on it, and only afterwards a decision is made whether to maintain or change the position. “Hopefully this will not happen, but in theory such a possibility exists,” says Zelčs.
Originally published at https://inc-baltics.com/ep-iesalde-mercosur-darijumu-un-ludz-to-izvertet-es-tiesai-parasti-sada-veida-procedura-aiznem-18-24-menesus-kas-vel-var-notikt/
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