MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

European Parliament casts uncertainty over EU/Mercosur trade talks

Strong lobbying from farmers has been most effective

This week’s strong statement from the European Parliament warning about concessions that ‘can adversely affect European farmers’, precisely a week before Mercosur and EU delegates meet in Brussels to advance trade discussions has caused a certain degree of uncertainty among the South American group delegates.

“When negotiating international trade agreements, the European Commission must stop making concessions that can adversely affect European farmers”, says a European Parliament resolution approved on Tuesday which also warns of the effects of the trade talks with Mercosur.

“A yellow light has gone on and the whole issue could be delayed” admitted Argentine diplomatic sources. “The strong lobby from the farmers has managed to convince the hardliners of the European Parliament, and this will only complicate things”.

In its statement (a non-legislative resolution) the European Parliament “strongly criticizes the European Commission for resuming negotiations with Mercosur without discussing the matter with Council. It also expresses serious concern about the impact on the EU farm sector of a trade agreement with Mercosur. It calls on the Commission to protect farmers' interests and put forward an impact assessment on the effect of such an agreement, to be debated, before the talks are finalized”.

Next week Mercosur and EU delegations are scheduled to meet in Brussels to continue with the round of negotiation re-launched last year in Madrid. In Brussels the idea, according to Mercosur sources was to advance “on partial agreements” leaving for further on agriculture since this is the ‘most sensitive’, before any agreement can be reached.

“In the previous meeting in Brasilia it was agreed to take proposals covering 90% of the agreement’s items, leaving for the second half of the year the more sensitive farm issues and hopefully an agreement could be reached by next December; this was what Mercosur Foreign Affairs ministers decided was more feasible, when they met last month in Paraguay”, revealed members of the Argentine delegation.

Apparently the Mercosur strategy originally was based on the fact that with the world crisis and the good performance of Mercosur and other emerging countries, developed economies, particularly the European Union was most interested in reaching a trade agreement. But the European Parliament seems to have torpedoed that scenario.

“The EC should always ensure ‘symmetrical tariff concessions’ when discussing free trade agreements, especially if with countries with strong agricultural sectors, such as Mercosur”, underlines the resolution.