Spanish farmers sound the alarm over EU-Mercosur trade deal
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Euractiv | 9 December 2024
Spanish farmers sound the alarm over EU-Mercosur trade deal
by Fernando Heller
Spain’s main farmers’ organisations are set to protest over the danger they believe the recently-agreed EU-Mercosur deal poses to their sector.
Over the weekend, the main farmers’ organisations demonstrated their firm opposition to the future ratification and entry into force of the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, the Latin American bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia.
Following the historic signing of the agreement last Friday in Montevideo, the reaction of the agricultural sector in Spain, as in other EU partners, was generally negative.
According to Pedro Barato, president of the Young Farmers’ Association (Asaja), the agreement was drawn up "in haste" and "without taking into account the interests of producers".
Spanish farmers cannot “accept any more (trade) agreements in which European agriculture is the paymaster of other interests; an agreement yes, but not in this way,” said Barato, EFE reported.
Miguel Padilla, president of the Coordination of Agricultural and Livestock Organisations (COAG), shared the same gloomy view.
The agreement is “absolutely outrageous”’, Padilla said on Saturday while criticising the government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D) for being the deal’s main promoter.
Spain’s agricultural sector - and that of the EU - is "once again the main loser" as the countryside is used as a "bargaining chip" for other commercial interests, said Padilla while warning that the agreement will have a negative impact on key sectors for southern Europe, such as citrus fruits.
Beef, pork and rice sectors under threat
The secretary for international relations of the Union of Small Farmers (UPA), José Manuel Roche, was equally pessimistic.
Roche believes the EU-Mercosur agreement “could seriously damage European agriculture and family livestock farming,” especially in key sectors such as beef, pork, and rice.
The pessimistic view expressed by the Iberian country’s main agricultural and livestock organisations was shared, with a few exceptions, by their counterparts in other EU member states.
Sources from the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations - General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives (Copa-Cogeca) on Friday regretted that the agricultural chapter of the agreement with Mercosur is "unbalanced." They warned that if the agreement comes into force, beef, poultry, sugar, ethanol, and rice, among other sectors, will be particularly affected.
Meanwhile, the Spanish far left has also taken a very critical stance, especially Izquierda Unida (IU), a formation integrated into the left-wing platform Sumar, a junior member of Sánchez’s coalition.
Toni Valero, the IU deputy and general coordinator in Andalusia, demanded that the government "reject outright" the agreement with Mercosur, which still needs to undergo a long and complex parliamentary ratification process.
Spanish left against ‘neoliberal rules’
For Valero, the Mercosur agreement is a "death threat to agriculture in our country" because it imposes "neoliberal trade rules that only benefit agribusiness".
However, there is a different opinion in Sánchez’s government - at least in the majority representing his party, PSOE.
Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas (PSOE) defended the deal because, as he said on Friday, it “is a great economic opportunity for the agricultural sector. Spain stands to gain from it. Our agri-food sector will be strengthened by this opening up to a continent with which we have cultural and linguistic ties”.
According to the European Commission, the agreement would benefit Europe. It would create the world’s largest trading bloc with a combined population of more than 730 million and strengthen the EU in the face of China’s growing influence in Latin America and the world.
Contrary to Brussels’ optimism, the main front of rejection in the EU is led by France, which has already announced it will not ratify the text, as well as Poland and possibly Italy.
Last week, France’s main farmers’ union, the FNSEA, called on French President Emmanuel Macron to commit to building a blocking majority in the EU to overturn the deal.
The agreement’s supporters are on the other side of the aisle, including Germany, Spain, Portugal and Germany.
According to Sánchez, the agreement will build an unprecedented "economic bridge" between Europe and Latin America, while Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa commented that the text "represents a unique opportunity for businesses and the economy on both sides of the Atlantic".