The European Union has been working on this rapprochement project with Mercosur (“Mercado Comun del sur” in Spanish) for more than twenty years, an economic alliance which brings together five South American states. The signing of this treaty has never been so close – Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission hopes to have it completed before the end of the year – but French farmers do not want it. This Monday, the main agricultural unions therefore called for mobilization against the project, less than a year after demonstrations which saw thousands of agricultural machines descend on Brussels. They are worried about the introduction of unfair competition on the European market.
Often the agreement has been summarized by the formula “Cows versus Cars”, cows against cars. Its principle is simple: the countries of South America would lift their taxes on part of European manufactured products, starting with cars, and in exchange, the countries of the Union would withdraw their customs tariffs on part of Brazilian food products. or Argentinians, for example. For its defenders, this agreement therefore represents an opportunity to extend the European common market; for its detractors, it would above all allow non-European farmers to sell products in Europe which would not be subject to the same quality standards. During a European audit published last June, Brazil explained that it was unable to trace the use of certain growth hormones banned in European farms.
Quotas per agricultural production
The agreement provides in particular for quotas per agricultural production. Thus, 99,000 tonnes of beef, 25,000 tonnes of pork and 180,000 tonnes of poultry and sugar could be exempt from customs duties each year. These are all very low amounts compared to European production, but which revolt local farmers, subject to ever heavier specifications.
The signing of this agreement would take place less than a year after Bolivia’s entry into Mercosur and two years after the signing of a free trade agreement between China and around fifteen of its neighboring countries (the RECP). This agreement allowed the opening of a powerful Asian common market comprising 30% of the world’s population. For the European Union, the challenge of this rapprochement with South America is therefore to increase its industrial outlets at a time when China is exchanging ever more goods.
During her grand oral presentation to MEPs on Tuesday, November 12, Kaja Kallas, the likely next high representative of the Union for foreign affairs, insisted that “if we do not make a free trade agreement with [les pays du Mercosur]the void will quickly be filled by China.” In 2024, these countries have imported more $63 billion of goods from China compared to only 45 billion from European products.