Partnership between EU and Mercosur depends on environmental commitments
In June 2019, a free trade agreement was signed between Mercosur and the European Union, with the aim of reducing import tariffs between member countries. The European Union, however, has been insisting that environmental commitments be included in the agreement and the South American bloc, on the other hand, wants to avoid additional legal obligations.
Pedro Luiz Côrtes, professor at the School of Communications and Arts (ECA) and the Institute of Energy and Environment (IEE) at USP, explains that, in several European countries, the environmental issue is very important and can generate sanctions, with Brazil as the main focus. In recent years, during the government of Jair Bolsonaro, the environmental issue has regressed: “Several years ago, the warning was given that trade sanctions could happen and, during the Bolsonaro government, the environmental situation only worsened and this ended up generating this type of situation. problem”.
In addition, in that same government, a favorable scenario was created for the use of the environmental agenda in a protectionist manner: “There are those who say that these European requirements hide protectionism to make it difficult or even prevent Brazilian agricultural products from competing with those produced in the Europe”, says Côrtes.
Environmental Conservation
According to Côrtes, in the Lula government, the international community has a perception that environmental issues will be treated differently: “One possibility that I see is that Brazil could, for example, accept targets for reducing deforestation in the Amazon, because this it is one of the objectives of the government and the objectives of the Ministry of the Environment, but it can also link this to the contribution of European resources to the bottom of the Amazon”.
Deforestation reduction targets could be used as a kind of bargaining chip for foreign investment in the Amazon Fund: “Currently, it is the fund that manages to capture international resources more intensively and apply these resources in projects that not only recover deforested areas, but also in offering job options to the communities that live in the Amazon”, he adds.
Another possibility would be the participation of large agricultural exporters in the Amazon Fund, ensuring that exported products contribute to the recovery of the Amazon forest: “My idea was that large exporters could also set up a fund to recover degraded areas and certify what they are exporting. Brazil has a very significant environmental protagonism and it would be very interesting if the government used this environmental protagonism more actively in favor of the recovery of our forests, in fundraising”, concludes Côrtes.