22.07.2020
Climate Alliance joins coalition to stop Mercosur
Climate Alliance has added its voice to that of some 60 organisations throughout Germany supporting the Just World Trade (Gerechter Welthandel) movement to stop the Mercosur Free Trade agreement in its current form.
“This agreement would undermine our member municipalities' efforts over the last 30 years to fight against climate change and for climate justice,” explains Madlie Le Bihan of Climate Alliance’s Climate Justice team. “Any agreement struck with the Bolsonaro government will be an endorsement of environmentally and socially disastrous policies for which our towns, our cities and our citizens, not to mention our indigenous partners in Amazonia and countless ecosystems on which we all rely, will have to pay dearly.”
The long negotiations for the trade agreement between the European Union and the so-called Mercosur states of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay were concluded in June 2019 although the agreement’s sustainability impact assessment was only finalised in July 2020. Analysis shows that the agreement would greatly bolster industries that are already key contributors to the climate crisis, increasing imports of agricultural products from Mercosur countries and exports of vehicles and chemicals, among other products. Beef and soy, perhaps the industries that stand to profit most, are already the main drivers of illegal logging and deforestation in the Amazon Basin.
Although the EU is currently preparing the agreement for signature, it is questionable how it can claim to uphold its climate goals while ratifying the current version of the trade deal. The German Federal Government, which now holds the EU Council Presidency, has set its sights on closing the agreement this November.
Further information
- The Just World Trade initiative (in German)
- Survey of public sentiment about the agreement
- Voices of Climate Alliance’s indigenous partners
Photo: Uwe Hiksch
