Weeks before EU and Latin American joint summit, trade deal remains elusive

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BRUSSELS (AP) — Just weeks before a joint summit between the European Union and Latin American nations that was supposed to seal a long-delayed trade deal, the graffiti on the wall of European Union headquarters Thursday explained why it didn’t happen.

“Stop EU-Mercosur,” the environmental group Greenpeace has put up huge letters on the building where the 27 EU trade ministers meet. They were taking stock of recent differences before hammering out a massive cooperation deal for both the EU and the bloc of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

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And if the environmentalists’ objections were hung outside the building, it was clear that between the ministers, despite nearly a quarter of a century of talks and a four-year “agreement in principle”, the final signature is still complicated.

In an effort to put a positive spin on it, EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said that the July 18-19 summit would be “a very important milestone for those negotiations,” and did not say that an agreement could be reached.

The remaining demands are clearly defined.

France has set very clear conditions. “It should be noted that, at this stage, the boxes are not marked,” said French Trade Minister Olivier Becht.

Like France, Ireland also had large agricultural interests to defend against cheap imports from South America. Trade Minister Simon Coveney was similarly noncommittal that any deal could be agreed by the time of the summit.

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He said the main challenge was “ensuring that there is no major disruption to trade for our beef products that are sold throughout the European Union. Ireland is the largest beef exporter in the Northern Hemisphere.”

This, of course, was not a concern for Greenpeace, which says the proposed deal would lead to a sharp increase in the use of pesticides produced in the European Union.

We call for a complete halt to this toxic trade deal. “If it’s supposed to be sustainable, it has to be completely renegotiated,” said Les Cunha, an activist with Greenpeace Trade.

“Like beef, like pesticides, like combustion engine cars — as long as these products are enhanced by the deal, they don’t make any sense at all,” Konya said. “It’s a bad deal. It’s a disaster for nature and the climate.”

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Just last month, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited Spain, trying to advance the deal.

If the agreement is adopted, it would mean the integration of a market of about 800 million people, nearly a quarter of the world’s GDP and more than $100 billion in bilateral trade of goods and services. The agreement will reduce customs duties and facilitate access for agricultural exporters to the EU market, and for European manufacturers to Mercosur countries.

Brazil and Spain will take over the presidency of their trade bloc by July, and both want a deal. Within the European Union, Lula’s election after the end of Jair Bolsonaro’s presidential term raised hopes. Bolsonaro removed environmental authorities, encouraged illegal gold mining in indigenous areas, and oversaw an increase in deforestation to its fastest rate in two decades.

“The situation, as we understand, has changed a lot on the other side of Mercosur and we have, for example, in Brazil, a government that is very engaged and committed to the defense of the environment,” said Spanish Trade Minister Chiana Mendez Bertolo.