MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Farmers warn European Parliament of ‘catastrophic impact’ of trade accord with Mercosur

COPA president Sonnleitner heads anti-Mercosur campaign

European farmers insisted Monday before the European Parliament on the “catastrophic impact” that a trade agreement with Mercosur could have for the EU agriculture.

The influential European agriculture cooperatives COPA-Cogeca lobby and representatives from the fruit juice industry exposed before a seminar data on the potential effects of a trade agreement with Mercosur members.

Gerd Sonnleitner, president of COPA (Committee of Professional Agriculture Organizations) said that losses for European farmers involved in meats, corn, fruit juice and sugar could amount to 13 billion Euros without counting repercussions for employment in rural areas of the EU.

In a release COPA said that Mercosur already supplies the EU with 86% of its beef imports; 70% of chicken meat purchases as well as 50% of Europe’s vegetable protein demand.

More specifically referring to the juice industry, Sonnleitner said that the EU imports “six times more” than its domestic production (700.000 tons) and an 86% of those imports come from Brazil and Argentina.

COPA-Cogeca said that Mercosur is already exporting “above its tariff contingent” and therefore needs additional concessions to further increase its “agriculture commercial flows to the EU”.

“If an agreement is reached, the EU would be wholly dependent on a foreign source to satisfy its food security and would therefore be exposed to the climate conditions and political decisions of those countries”, emphasized COPA president Sonnleitner.