Marcela Cristini, senior economist at the Argentinian Foundation for Economic Investigations in Latin America (FIEL), argued that the new Argentinian government would favour the trade deal between the EU and Mercosur but that the EU’s ecological requirements went too far.
As the Spanish EU Presidency comes to a close, the trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur could not be finalised and could thus be delayed for more than two years as the EU and the US face elections.
During the negotiations in the past months, the focus was on Brazil, Mercosur’s largest state, which argued against the environmental standards that the EU wanted to impose through the additional protocol of the agreement. However, Argentina has similar objections.
“Exaggerated” requirements
According to Cristini, the environmental requirements of the EU were too demanding compared with the economic benefits the deal would have for Argentina.
“The requirements are exaggerated,” Cristini told Euractiv, arguing that Argentina had to think of its food security.
“The trade deal is not very beneficial for Argentina,” Cristini said, arguing that only small quotas for some products were opened. “In reality, we are not expecting great commercial results from it.”
Investments
“What we hope, though, is that Europe reconsiders its alliance with Latin America and begins to invest in Latin America again,” she told Euractiv: “This is where our real benefit will be.”
Investments are also how Cristini sees Europe and Latin America cooperate more productively and mutually beneficially in terms of the green transition.
“Investment in our environment and adaptation can be a solution,” she said.
“This would not be rules that [the Europeans] impose on us, but collaborations that we could do between Europeans and Latin Americans together.”
“I understand that, for the planet’s good, we cannot keep deforesting,” the economist said.
“But we’ll have to reach a compromise through which we can invest in technology and infrastructural changes,” she added, arguing that this was the most productive way of reaching economic and environmental goals.
“This would benefit European companies a lot,” Cristini said, pointing to investment opportunities in hydropower as an example.
Geopolitics
Moreover, she argued that Argentinian livestock farming was much more environmentally friendly than European livestock farming, hinting towards a European double standard that becomes evident when its high standards for trade agreements are compared with the high environmental impact of its agriculture.
There is, of course, also a geopolitical aspect to this.
“Given our history, it would be ideal to do this with the European Union and not with China,” Cristini said before adding: “But the Chinese are ready at the door. If we call them, they will surely come.”
However, she stressed that the new government that took office under the right-wing, self-proclaimed libertarian hardliner Javier Milei this month was geopolitically more aligned with the US and Europe than the previous government.
Asked whether she thought the Milei government was ready to conclude the trade deal with the EU, Cristini answered with an unequivocal “yes.”
Concerning the external relations, the new government would “undoubtedly be very beneficial,” according to her, though she stressed that it was a very different and more difficult case for Milei’s internal and social policies.
Already in his first days in government, Milei has used emergency powers to announce cuts in social spending and public services, as well as significantly curtailing the right to protest, causing large protests to erupt in Buenos Aires and other cities.
[Edited by Alice Taylor]
