h

Mercosur treaty negotiations must stop

6 December 2017

Mercosur treaty negotiations must stop

Foto: SP

The accuracy of the SP's concerns regarding food quality, deforestation and damage to the climate as a result of the Mercosur treaty has been confirmed in an analysis by Greenpeace, and the party is urging an end to be put to the negotiations. Greenpeace has leaked six of the fifteen chapters of the proposed treaty between the European Union and the Mercosur countries – Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

SP Euro-MP Anne-Marie Mineur also has major concerns about the haste with which the European Commission is looking to seal the free trade treaty. “The treaty with the Mercosur countries is one of a series of extensive, radical treaties which are principally intended to serve the interests of the multinationals,” says Mineur . “In this case, it's all about auto industry interests and those of meat producers. The latter in particular come at the cost of millions of hectares of tropical rainforest. We'll soon have cheap Argentinian meat on our plates, to the detriment of our own stock farmers, the climate and the welfare of animals. And then there's still the question of how good the quality of this meat will be, given the scandals that we've seen recently.”

Mineur finds it scandalous that the public still has to rely on leaked documents such as these to know what the European Commission is up to. “Now that the European Commission has decided only to conclude treaties for which they don't need the agreement of the member states, the citizens of those member states have been pushed further away from the game than ever. Negotiations on the Mercosur treaty must stop, and the trade policies of the European Commission and the Council must be made completely public.”

You are here