After the European Parliament adopted a new anti-deforestation regulation in April, concerns have been raised over how it will apply to the still unratified EU-Mercosur free trade agreement and whether it might hamper the final deal.
Read the original French article here.
In April, members of European Parliament voted almost unanimously in favour of an unprecedented regulation against deforestation. From 2026 onwards, palm oil, cattle, soya, coffee, cocoa, wood, rubber and their by-products cannot be sold in the EU if they come from deforested or degraded land.
However, questions have been raised as to how the ban, which will cover both local and imported goods, will be applied to the EU’s trade partnerships.
In 2019, the European Union agreed, in principle, with Mercosur, the economic community of four South American countries, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Since then, the Commission has been waiting for all member states to approve the agreement. France, the Netherlands, and Austria are amongst those that are yet to do so.
“What will be the concrete consequences of this ban on the free trade agreements concluded or being negotiated, in particular […] between the EU and Mercosur?” French MEP Jordan Bardella of the far-right Rassemblement National Party (ID) asked the European Commission.
In response to Bardella’s question, the Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis said the deforestation regulation “has been drafted in line with the EU’s international commitments”.
“This regulation is independent of any trade agreement and will enter into force as an autonomous EU instrument,” Dombrovskis also told EURACTIV France.
Not enough for French lawmakers
However, this was not enough to reassure French lawmakers who, both in France and at the EU level, tabled a cross-party resolution making any agreement “conditional on compliance with the Paris Agreement” – a wish also voiced by President Emmanuel Macron.
In other words, lawmakers are asking France not to ratify the EU-Mercosur deal without assurances that it will not violate the climate commitments made in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Faced with these demands, the European Commission has remained silent, according to lawmakers.
“The EU executive would like to organise a photo opportunity to sign the agreement during the summit between the EU and Latin American countries, scheduled for 18 July in Brussels,” Mathilde Dupré, co-director of the public policy research association Veblen Institute, told EURACTIV France.
French MEP Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, the vice-chair of Parliament’s International Trade Committee (INTA), told EURACTIV France that for those who want rapid ratification, like “some colleagues, specifically Spanish and Portuguese in the EPP and S&D groups […] it is the right time, politically and economically. But it is above all a totem and a symbol.”
Solutions
Dupré warned that the deforestation regulation is not “as ambitious as the European Parliament had initially advocated” regarding coverage, despite its review clauses that could broaden its material and geographical scope.
There is also a “major issue of product traceability, whose effectiveness is not yet certain”, Dupré noted.
In mid-March, NGOs leaked a non-binding complimentary act by the Commission, which proposed bringing ecological and social guarantees to the agreement.
While some Mercosur countries have postponed final conclusions because the complementary act is too strict, its critics across the ocean find it too loose. MEP Vedrenne, for instance, does not see “how it leads to tangible changes on deforestation and social equity”.
“The Commission is not clear in its answers,” Vedrenne said. “MEPs have never had access to the complementary act in the INTA committee, but only in bilateral meetings,” she added and warned it “would be a shame to give the populists a free ride”, implying that disregarding the concerns and pushing the ratification through would be undemocratic.
In addition, negotiations over the EU-Mercosur agreement were closed before the final environmental impact assessment report – a turn of events the European Ombudsman qualified as an unprecedented case of “maladministration” in 2021.
Cutting the deal to circumvent unanimity
The Commission has also been criticised for wanting to cut the agreement in a way that would circumvent the unanimity vote required by the member states.
Despite the criticism, this possibility could still be on the table, said Dupré, even though the member states opposed this in 2018. Ultimately, “the risks [of ratifying the agreement as it stands] are still very, very high,” she said.
In favour of swift ratification, Spain will take over the EU Council presidency for six months on 1 July 2023. It will take over from Sweden, another backer of rapid ratification.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald/Zoran Radosavljevic]
