Mercosur trade deal: MEPs for and against

As negotiations heat up in Montevideo, we asked two MEPs how they consider this major deal.

Transcript

00:00It is 216 million consumers on their side and 450 on our side, so it will be a huge

00:18market, a common market, that will of course help consumers.

00:22They will have more choices and more products to choose from and hopefully it will also

00:28help to beat inflation.

00:29Well, it is difficult to exactly see the benefits because it is lowering the tariffs to import

00:36more products issued from the agricultural sector, mainly beef, poultry, but also honey

00:42for instance.

00:48It's huge opportunities for farmers and for the food producers, but of course there is

00:52also some sensitive products and we have to pay attention to them and the Commission

00:58has done that, so there are tariff rate quotas, meaning that it cannot come in too many products

01:06for the sensitive goods.

01:09The farmers will be impacted by the import of products that do not respect the same social

01:14and environmental standards, using chemicals and products that the EU is exporting, that

01:20are forbidden in the EU and that will come back through our soy, for instance, or also

01:25the meat production.

01:27It means that the level playing field is not respected, that there is an unfair competition

01:35between the products that are imported here in Europe.

01:40Yes, I would say it is a very good package for the climate, because first of all we have

01:50a commitment to effectively implement the Paris Agreement.

01:54The Mercosur Agreement is based on a 20 years old mandate, which means that climate issues,

02:02biodiversity issues are not taken into account and that those elements are not enforceable,

02:08which means that, no, it will have an adverse impact on climate change, mainly also because

02:14of deforestation.