So the Mercosur and the European Union have announced a free trade agreement, although it now has to go through the national parliaments. What would a free trade agreement entail? Who are those most interested on its approval?
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00:00And now we continue analysing the implications of this free trade agreement that was announced
00:05between the Mercosur and European Union.
00:08For this we welcome international analyst Hermelinda Malgote.
00:12Hello Hermelinda, thank you for joining us here and from the south.
00:17Thank you for inviting me.
00:19Of course, it's a pleasure to have you.
00:21So Mercosur and the European Union have announced a free trade agreement, although this still
00:26has to go through national parliament.
00:29But what would a free trade agreement like this entail?
00:32Who are those most interested on its approval?
00:35Well, in Europe there is a great division about the Mercosur and European Union free
00:41trade agreement.
00:43Germany and Spain are the most interested in signing the treaty.
00:49And we have countries like France, Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece and other countries
00:57that are opposed to it.
00:59So the main interest for Germany and Spain is to export their industrial products.
01:06And the main concern of France and other countries is about agriculture.
01:14And also Hermelinda, just to keep in mind, on the Latin American side, what would such
01:20an agreement entail?
01:23Well, making a free trade agreement with the European Union is never a good sign for Latin
01:29America, I believe, because we have, unfortunately, practices of imperialism.
01:36And this is why the treaty has been so long to negotiate, because European Union has always
01:42been wanting to take the more the Union could take from the Latin American countries into
01:50the Mercosur.
01:52And of course, European Union will always benefit from it.
01:56So it has been very long to negotiate, because of the imperialist interest of European Union,
02:01they have come to an agreement.
02:04But with time, the details of the agreement has not been known, because the European Union
02:10has negotiated with no transparency, actually.
02:15So there will be custom duties that will be lowered very much, almost to zero.
02:23But yes, you cannot expect trading with the European Union, a free trade, it will be asymmetrical
02:31for Latin America, unfortunately.
02:34Right.
02:36And you were before saying about the, well, the restrictions and also the protests that
02:42several European countries have had, the protectors of the population from these countries
02:47have had to this possible free trade agreement.
02:51Could you get a little bit more into why that is?
02:54Why do some sectors, for example, the agricultural sectors of countries like France, for example,
03:00have had such massive protests against this agreement?
03:06Yes, the problem that exists in France is that the farmers in France are very diverse.
03:12You have a great part of them which are very poor, and you have the very big farms, transnational
03:19farms.
03:20But on the street, you can see the poor farmers.
03:23For example, in France, to give some data, the revenue of one third of the farmer is
03:29less than 350 euros a month, which is less than one quarter of the minimum salary of
03:36French people.
03:37The investment they have to make to build a farm is moreover half of a million of euro.
03:44So they are highly in debt.
03:45And if you take another data, the suicidal rate of the farmers in France is 45 percent
03:52higher than in the general population.
03:55People that suffer a lot of the condition they are working in, and it's for sure the
04:03free trade agreement with Mercosur will penalize them.
04:07On the other hand, we have big, big farms that are in favor of it because generally
04:15they produce meat and they need soya, they need a lot of product that will be exported
04:20from Argentina and the Mercosur country.
04:23So this is the big division.
04:25And of course, Macron, which is the president of France, he's facing, he's on the verge
04:31to be dismissed as president of the country.
04:34So he cannot afford to have higher and higher strikes and protests from part of the farmers,
04:41which represents a political force into France.
04:46There is also, from the opposition of a lot of countries in Europe, the question about
04:52the sovereignty of those countries, of the state members of the European Union.
04:58Because one specificity of the free trade agreement that is signed in the European Union
05:03is that it doesn't need the unanimity of the country.
05:07It just needs a majority of them.
05:10Generally, the European Union works with unanimity.
05:13So it pushes a problem that has been discussed in the European Union since a long time, which
05:20is the loss of sovereignty of the state members of the European Union.
05:25And it's really triggering a lot of countries.
05:29We have heard a lot about Hungary, about those subjects, especially for his position in front
05:36of the Ukraine war.
05:38But now we are seeing that on really important things, which is alimentary sovereignty, also
05:44the European Union is questioned.
05:47And Melinda, you were just talking about some of the internal national struggles that
05:52also every country is going through, for example, the particular situation in France.
05:58So this agreement should have to be ratified in the national parliaments now.
06:03What could that look like on the road ahead?
06:07Well, so European Union is 27 countries, and they would only need 17 of those countries
06:16to sign and to agree with the free trade agreement with Mercosur.
06:21So we are almost certain that the agreement will pass, but it will pass on the detriment
06:28of the interest of some countries.
06:31This is something common in European Union.
06:33The European Union generally acts against the interests of some of those countries,
06:40for example, Greece.
06:42But in that case, what is special is that one of its main members, France, is completely
06:48opposed to it.
06:50So it will pass, but it will bring a lot of questions about European Union.
06:56Those questions are in the air since a long time, and it will be worsening.
07:06One main key in the free trade agreement is that it is not only a question of free
07:12trade from the part of European Union, but also a geostrategical interest.
07:18The future foreign affairs of European Union, Kajsa Kalas, she has stated that if we don't
07:27sign the agreement with Mercosur, China will do.
07:32So we are clearly seeing that European Union is following as ever the geopolitical interest
07:40of United States in that stake.
07:43And it's also questioned by a lot of member states of the European Union.
07:48And it's definitely a topic to follow in this geopolitical context and the way that things
07:54are changing.
07:55So thank you, Hermelinda, for joining us and also bringing all this analysis to better
07:59understand the situation.
08:03Thank you very much for the invitation.
08:04Of course.