On 13 November 2024, independent farmers’ organizations will resume their protests in the streets of Brussels to reject the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement and assert the right to a fair price for agri-food products. (1)
1) EU-Mercosur, a free trade agreement at the expense of small farmers
Civil society, alongside farmers, represented by the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), denounces the European Commission’s attempts to close the free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur countries at the G20 summit in Brazil, on 18-19 November 2024.
This agreement – as the author has denounced at the time (2) – threatens to destroy small and medium-sized agricultural and food companies, on both sides of the Atlantic. To the exclusive benefit of the financial oligarchies that dominate the global market of agricultural commodities and meat (3,4).
2) Essential socio-environmental conditions
Land conflicts and land grabbing, denial of union rights and fair compensation for workers, exploitation of child labor, abuse of pesticides with dangerous exposure of rural communities to toxic chemicals are unfortunately common and well known in Latin America. (5)
Only the soy, oil palm, meat, cocoa and coffee, timber and rubber supply chains have been the object of attention, through the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EU) No 2023/1115, the application of which, however, risks being postponed by one or two years as has been seen (6,7).
In the absence of key conditions to guarantee human rights and the environment, the liberalisation of trade proposed in the EU-Mercosur agreement risks aggravating unfair competition based on socio-environmental dumping. (8) In defiance of the Commission’s promises in the Strategic Dialogue on Agriculture. (9)
3) Competition and monopolies
Via Campesina denounces the Commission’s attempt to ‘impose a neoliberal, competition-based approach on farmers. This includes attempts to bribe EU farmers into accepting the agreement by offering short-sighted compensation funds for damage caused by the agreement.
The vision of ‘competitiveness’ among farmers around the world that is being peddled by the Commission does not exist.
Farmers will never be able to compete with investment funds, large agribusiness corporations and agricultural export and import companies that monopolize, corner and speculate on the markets for land, water and agricultural production and make huge profits from these Free-Trade Agreements’.
4) #fairprice, the unheard priority
‘Farmers face ongoing challenges, such as prices that do not cover production costs and the animal disease crisis, and while the European Commission has made endless promises, its actions show that it is willing to abandon farmers to protect other interests.
We need fair prices and conditions to grow food to feed people, and this FTA will make this impossible‘ (Andoni García Arriola, ECVC, coordination committee). The farmers’ protest is therefore also expected in Rio de Janeiro, at the G20 summit, together with peasant organizations from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
5) Via Campesina, the demands
The demands of ECVC (European Coordination Via Campesina) are therefore:
– an end to free trade agreements and unfair competition, with a definitive interruption of EU-Mercosur negotiations;
– immediate reform of the Unfair Trading Practices Directive (EU) No 2019/633, to include the purchase of agricultural products below production prices in the black list of practices that are always prohibited; (10)
– regulate markets through the Common Market Organisation, within the CAP, to ensure minimum prices, minimum entry prices for imports and regulation of volumes;
– ensure a sufficient budget and fair distribution of CAP aid to enable a viable transition towards agroecology and sustainable practices.
#Equality
Dario Dongo
Note
(1) ECVC, FUGEA and civil society demand an end to the EU-Mercosur FTA in Brussels. 7.11.24 https://tinyurl.com/3put2kba
(2) Dario Dongo, Giulia Torre. EU – Mercosur, toxic trade agreement. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 14.7.19
(3) Dario Dongo. The tentacles of finance on food sovereignty and our food. FT (Food Times). March 31, 2024
(4) Dario Dongo. Operation fractious meat. Reflections on globalization, food security and rights. FT (Food Times). March 26, 2017
(5) Dario Dongo. Brazil, land grabbing and deforestation for Ferrero and Big Food’s ‘sustainable’ palm oil. Open letter. FT (Food Times). May 22, 2023
(6) Dario Dongo. Deforestation Regulation. Due diligence on critical raw materials kicks off. FT (Food Times). July 19, 2023
(7) Dario Dongo. Operation fractious meat. Reflections on globalization, food security and rights. FT (Food Times). March 26, 2017
(8) Dario Dongo, Alessandra Mei. Agriculture, stop to free trade agreements without conditions. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 2.5.24
(9) Dario Dongo. Strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture in the EU. FT (Food Times). September 8, 2024
(10) See paragraph 2.A (#fairprice) in the previous article by Dario Dongo. Peace, Land and Dignity. Our movement in the 2024 European elections. FT (Food Times). March 14, 2024
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
