Now that US President Trump is backing out of the TTIP negotiations, it's a good time to talk about another free trade agreement. You probably remember all too well the fears about TTIP - chlorinated chicken, hormone-contaminated beef. But have you heard about the planned free trade agreement between Mercosur and the EU?
The Mercado Común del Sur is a common market of the South of America. The member states are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. With an area of more than 12 million km², the Mercosur internal market is larger than China, Canada or the USA.
The EU has had an Interregional Framework Agreement with Mercosur since 1995. Since then, negotiations on a free trade agreement have been ongoing, sometimes with long breaks. The last ones took place in December 2017, naturally behind closed doors and not in public, as prescribed. All parties involved are hoping for an early conclusion.
Until now, the trading relationship between Mercosur and the EU has consisted of South America mainly exporting agricultural products and raw materials and the EU exporting machinery and chemicals. As usual, both sides are hoping for major benefits and profits from a free trade agreement.
What does the EU gain from the planned agreement?
Mercosur is the EU's 10th most important export market for goods and Mercosur is currently only negotiating with the EU, which should give it a major competitive advantage. By eliminating customs duties, the EU would be able to sell products such as machinery and equipment 20% to 25% cheaper and cars 23% to 25% cheaper . For this reason alone, Germany has a great interest in the free trade agreement, as the car market there has been stagnating for several years.
In return, the EU could import plant-based proteins such as genetically modified soya - Brazil and Argentina, along with the USA, are among the leading cultivation areas - and animal feed for factory farming even more cheaply. 1 kg of chicken meat already costs less than €4. How worthless is meat going to become?
Can cheaper products be prevented?
The EU is currently negotiating free trade agreements with 20 countries. On the one hand with the Gulf Cooperation Council states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates), and on the other with Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, the USA and the Mercosur states. Free trade agreements are already in place with 37 countries and have almost been implemented with many others such as Canada and Japan.
The globalization of markets and thus of agriculture can no longer be stopped. From a purely economic point of view, it also makes sense for products to be manufactured in the cheapest location and for innovation and knowledge to be the main product in countries where, for example, labor is expensive. However, if we take a look at why some locations are favorable, the advantages are not justifiable from an ethical point of view. The cause is a lack of labor rights, nature, animal and environmental protection guidelines. A plantation on illegally cleared land is always more lucrative than cultivation on properly leased land. Slaves also work more cheaply than free people with fair working hours and wages.
Elisabeth Köstinger (Austrian Federal Minister for Sustainability and Tourism) and Karin Kadenbach (SPÖ politician and Member of the European Parliament) rightly fear that the agreement will cause "major damage" to European agriculture. Austrian cattle farmers are worried about cheap beef from the Argentinian pampas. If Argentinian meat were still produced originally, namely by grazing cattle in the fertile grasslands of Pampa Húmeda, it would at least be a high-quality product. However, due to the ever-increasing hunger for meat, the majority of cattle in Argentina are now also kept on huge farms and fattened with concentrated feed.
Is the fight pointless?
Preventing free trade agreements is probably almost impossible. But we can delay the negotiations and thus give domestic agriculture time to get on a stable footing. It makes no sense for a European farmer to compete with Brazilian soybean fields on price with his feed maize. It goes without saying that the path must therefore be towards quality, such as organic farming and small-scale farms. If the 75% of consumers who like to buy regional products also understand thatauthentic regional meat includes regional animal feed, the way is paved for domestic animal feed producers.
So what can you do?
Ditch the €4 chicken and opt for high-quality products. If you reduce your meat consumption at the same time, it won't cost you any more. Inform those around you about authentic regionality and the many benefits of choosing food produced in this way.
Do this with a smile, because positive change convinces!
About the author
Dr. Isabell Riedl has been working as a sustainability officer and in communications at Werner Lampert GmbH since 2012. She studied ecology with a focus on nature and landscape conservation and tropical ecology at the University of Vienna. She wrote her dissertation on the importance of tree rows in agricultural areas for forest birds in Costa Rica. Throughout her life, she has been particularly committed to ecological sustainability. She is part of the editorial team of the online magazine "Nachhaltigkeit. Neu denken." (Rethinking Sustainability).
