With 218 votes in favor and 58 against, French MPs are asking Emmanuel Macron to tell the European Commission that they oppose the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement (FTA) if the countries of the South American trading bloc do not comply with European agricultural health regulations, as well as measures relating to the environment and the climate.
The agreement between the two trading blocs was signed in 2019 but it hasn't been ratified, precisely because France was reluctant to enter into an FTA with the region as long as Bolsonaro continued his denialism of climate change and the deforestation of the Amazonia.
Economy Minister Elisabeth Borne was blunt in 2019: “France will not sign the agreement with Mercosur under these conditions.” “We cannot sign an agreement with a country that does not respect the Amazon rainforest, that does not respect the Paris Treaty on climate. France will not sign the agreement with Mercosur under these conditions,” said Ms. Borne on the BFM television channel.
Thus, France remains an obstacle to the opening of trade between these two points of the Atlantic. Meanwhile, Spain's position is totally favorable, even if Moncloa's position with regard to this FTA is that it constitutes a brake on the increasingly strong penetration of China into the South American market.
It's worth noting that Brazil is the main supplier of cereals to Europe. According to the latest data from the European Commission, maize imports went from 3,309,387 tons in the 2021/2022 campaign to 7,904,878 until the beginning of April of this year. In other words, Brazilian maize has gone from accounting for 26.2% of all maize imports to 36.4%, behind Ukrainian maize, which has reached 11,743,220 tons since the beginning of the year.
On the other hand, data from the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture shows that China was its main buyer of maize last year, with 1.165 million tons, and that in 2023 "it could exceed 5 million," as stated by the director general of the National Association of Brazilian Cereals Exporters (ANEC), Sérgio Mendes.
“Consequently, the discourse of Moncloa and that of Brussels coincide in that carrying forward this free trade agreement with the region would “slow down China's” intense advance in South America. In fact, EU sources have assured that it wouldn't be surprising that if this agreement with Mercosur is not implemented, China would implement it."
Source: eleconomista.es