IFA President Tim Cullinan said the EU Commission cannot continue to ignore the mounting evidence of Brazil’s degradation of the environment for beef exports.
“The Commission was explicit that Mercosur could not go ahead if Brazil failed to meet environmental standards. A new report from University of Oxford and the Nature Conservancy says the deal fails the sustainability test and should be abandoned,” he said.
The report states ‘the proposed EU-Mercosur agreement puts the EU’s own social and environmental sustainability goals at risk. For example, the proposed EU-Mercosur agreement as it currently stands is in direct contradiction to the…. European Green Deal’.
At the recent informal EU Farm Council meeting, the German Agriculture Minister Julia Klockner, who chairs the Farm Council, said she was sceptical if the Mercosur agreement could be ratified in its current format.
The IFA President said it would be deeply hypocritical of the EU Commission to pursue a trade deal that so clearly conflicts with their own policy,
“Commission President Ursula von der Leyen cannot stand over this deal and should send a clear signal that the EU will not do business with Brazil when it continues to flout the law,” he said.
