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Concerns grow over EU-Mercosur deal

The European Consumer Organisation, BEUC, has warned that the EU-Mercosur trade deal is likely to fail both consumers and farmers on sustainability goals.

In November, farmers took to the streets of Brussels to protest against the EU-Mercosur trade deal’s impending arrival. With non-profit consumer right organisation BEUC anticipating that the agreement’s implementation date is nearing, concerns remain about its lack of alignment with consumer needs and the EU’s sustainability goals.

Currently, EU officials anticipate the deal will conclude by the end of 2024 in a move that strives to develop trade between the EU and Mercosur.

The EU-Mercosur trade agreement is a pivotal economic instrument. The EU is Mercosur’s second-biggest trade-in goods partner, coming second to China and ahead of the US. In 2023, the EU made up 16.9% of Mercosur’s total trade. In the same year, the EU’s exports to the four Mercosur countries – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – reached €55.7 billion, while Mercosur’s exports to the EU amounted to €53.7 billion.

Aligning goals

However, BEUC states that, as it stands, the trade agreement contradicts the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture’s recommendations. As a result, some food supply chain participants, including the consumer trade organisation, want stronger coherence between EU trade policy and sustainability requirements.

BEUC has argued for recognition of the importance of aligning food imports with the EU’s environmental, food safety and animal welfare standards.

A concern is that the trade agreement fails to safeguard consumer interests and align with the EU’s sustainability goals. According to BEUC, one of the main problems of the proposed agreement, and other trade agreements of the EU, is that it tends to focus on opening access to the EU market for imports of products such as meat. At the same time, the EU promotes the farm-to-fork strategy to reduce the consumption of such food products for health and environmental reasons.

Delivering additional complications, BEUC states the deal could come into force alongside the EU suspending imports from Brazilian beef over concerns it contains hormones banned in livestock production.

Indications signal the EU-Mercosur trade agreement is nearing the finish line.

“Negotiating rounds are intensifying and there were rumours that it could be concluded at a higher political level during the G20, but now it seems that the talks are not advanced enough for a political conclusion,” Léa Auffret, head of international affairs at BEUC told Ingredients Network.

The relationship between trading and sustainability

Reaching its current stage is instrumental, particularly following the path the trade agreement has travelled on to get to the point it’s at today. Industry recognises the EU-Mercosur deal as more than a trade agreement.

“This agreement is more than a trade agreement, it is an association agreement that has been negotiated over the past 25 years,” says Auffret. The deal has been designed to better connect Europe and Mercosur, notably from a diplomatic perspective.

“Trade agreements should focus primarily on trading sustainable products that support the green transition, rather than those that hinder it,” says Agustín Reyna, director general of BEUC. “Today, trade policy clashes with our sustainable consumption goals so it is time for the EU to stop contradicting itself and get its act together.”

According to Auffret, however, the trade part of the association agreement has been complicating the discussion and leading to a never-ending negotiation. The deal aims to update trading relationships relating to the food industry’s needs.

“It reflects the need to better adapt trade policy to the new reality of today’s world: the need for more sustainable trade exchanges and clearer rules to prevent consumers from being misled and farmers from being unfairly treated,” she says.

Calls for better coherence

Amid the perceived trade policy clashes with other internal policies of the EU, the consumer organisation calls for consistency to provide clarity of efforts to reach goals with greater coherence between trade and sustainability policies.

Building stronger coherence between EU trade policy and sustainability requirements, particularly with food imports, revolves around improving coherence on two key issues: animal welfare and antimicrobial resistance.

BEUC calls for comprehensive coverage of all animal welfare legislation in the EU.

“Animal welfare rules in the EU do not cover all animal species and do not apply to imports,” says Auffret. “The EU should update its legislation on animal welfare to reflect science and European citizens’ expectations that farmed animals should live a good life.”

Updates to the law also need to exist and cover all areas of animal welfare. BEUC believes the EU needs to ensure that newly introduced requirements, such as a prohibition on cages, cover all animal species and equally apply to animals and products of animal origin exported from third countries into the EU.

“Consumers expect that their food groceries meet the same high standards as those produced in the EU, such as on animal welfare, regardless of their origin,” says Reyna. “Sadly, this agreement will boost trade in products, such as meat, that do not meet EU standards on top of hampering efforts to cut the EU’s climate footprint and shift to healthier diets,” adds Reyna.

Antimicrobial resistance is also a key issue that requires development. “The European Commission must swiftly deliver the implementing acts that are still necessary to enforce the ban on using certain antimicrobials in animals or products of animal origin imported from third countries into the EU,” says Auffret.

The ban on using certain antimicrobials was due to apply from January 2022. However, its effective application is still pending, the BEUC states, subject to the adoption of two additional acts. One act concerns the list of third countries having a system of controls that guarantees compliance with the EU’s rules. Another sets the requirements for the official certificates accompanying the exported animals/animal products to confirm compliance with the EU’s rules.