EU-Mercosur trade deal ratification delay

The outbreak has driven down commodity prices and placed huge swathes of Chinese territory on lockdown, potentially disrupting purchasing demands in the US-China trade deal. Photo: AP. Sketched by the Pan Pacific Agency.

SAO PAULO, Sep 23, 2020, Merco Press. Brazil hit back Tuesday at European reluctance to finalize a trade deal between the EU and Mercosur blocs over concerns about Amazon deforestation, saying a French report on the issue was motivated by “protectionist interests,” Merco Press reported.

France said on Friday it was opposed to the yet-to-be-ratified deal, after a government-commissioned report blasted the accord as a “missed opportunity” to hold South American countries accountable for protecting the environment.

The report notably analyzed the link between the expansion of beef production in Brazil and deforestation in the Amazon, where environmentalists accuse farmers, ranchers and land speculators of razing trees to make way for crops and pasture.

But Brazil argued the report “showed the true protectionist interests of those who commissioned it.”

“Brazil has already shown it is capable of increasing beef, soy and corn production while also reducing deforestation,” the foreign affairs and agriculture ministries said in a joint statement.

“From 2004 to 2012, deforestation in the Amazon region fell 83% even as agricultural production increased 61%…. That is consistent with the historical trend of increasing agricultural production in Brazil resulting from productivity gains compatible with environmental preservation.”

The draft deal between the European Union and Mercosur — Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay — was agreed in principle last year after two decades of wrangling. But it still needs to be ratified by all 27 EU member states.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also voiced “significant doubts” about the deal, given the extent of deforestation, her spokesman said.

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