There was great jubilation in Berlin and Brussels when Brazil’s left-wing populist President Lula da Silva made his historic promise: deforestation in the largest South American country should be reduced to zero by 2030. Berlin announced immediate aid of 200 million euros to save the Amazon.
However, the euphoric Greens would like to have Lula’s promise in black and white: enshrined in the framework of the free trade agreement with the South American trade alliance Mercosur, which has been so longed for by the European Union in particular. But Lula is not even thinking about committing to something he promised during the election campaign.
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“I will not be accountable to anyone for what we do,” Lula da Silva said at the most recent Mercosur summit in Rio de Janeiro in December, referring to European demands.
The European Union simply needs to recognize the credibility of the data from Brazil’s deforestation monitoring and certification systems. The accusation from South America: With a kind of “green colonialism”, Europe wants to protect its own agricultural products against those from South America through environmental regulations.
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Lula receives support for a Eurosceptic course from right-wing Paraguay, which currently holds the presidency of Mercosur. “If we sign this contract with what they want to impose on us now, namely environmental requirements, then European law will effectively become Paraguayan law, and that goes against our sovereignty,” said Alfred Fast from the Association of Agricultural Producers in Paraguay.
Europeans now face a dilemma
For example, if a producer wants to change his pasture land and switch to arable farming, he will no longer be able to do that, Fast argues in the Zeitung “ABC”. In the case of the Chaco, even after monitored and controlled deforestation, everything produced there can no longer be sold in Europe, says Fast.
The Europeans are now faced with a dilemma: give in and thus throw their own long-held principles overboard, or accommodate the South Americans in order to save free trade with a view to other sectors such as mechanical engineering. The barely noticed success of the EU’s negotiations with Chile provides an indication of where things are headed.
The association agreement previously concluded with the Andean nation, which is not a member of the Mercosur alliance, has been upgraded to a free trade agreement. State Secretary Franziska Brantner (Greens) from Robert Habeck’s Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection writes about it on the Linkedin network: “We have ensured that the EU and Chile enter into negotiations immediately after the entry into force of the agreement on the possibility of trade sanctions if sustainability provisions are violated.”
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In other words: the pressure of European environmental regulations was removed from the contract negotiations. First free trade, then the environment. There will be renegotiations at some point.
The current geopolitical reality makes the reversal of European positions necessary. China has a strong presence in all key markets in South America. When it comes to the raw material lithium, which is essential for e-mobility and is needed to build storage batteries, Beijing has long since left behind Brussels and Berlin in the region.
The People’s Republic is following a clear strategy: there are no environmental regulations or supply chain laws; trading partners are responsible for the standards in their own countries. While the Europeans have so far wanted to enforce European standards, Beijing is not imposing any regulations on its contractual partners.
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The geopolitical situation changed by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the growing tensions with China and an increasingly isolated position of Europe in Latin America make a rethink necessary in Berlin and Brussels. The new government in Argentina shows a possible way out, bringing a new dynamic to the negotiations.
The Argentine business portal “Ambito” claims to have learned from the environment of the new president Javier Milei, who is seen as a clear supporter of free trade: “Argentina would be ready“To abandon its demands to compensate for the new market access conditions imposed by Brussels under the Green Deal and to conclude the agreement on the same terms as those agreed in 2019.”
In practice, the principle of looking the other way has become established anyway
That would be the contract ready to be signed, which Berlin and Brussels had put on hold at the time because of Bolsonaro’s deforestation policy. But then came the pandemic, the Russian attack on Ukraine and the Hamas attack on Israel. Germany’s economic model in particular is now beginning to falter.
In practice, the principle of looking the other way has already become established. During the term of right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro, Europeans in particular criticized Brazil’s inhumane treatment of the Yanomami indigenous people living in the Amazon region.
International camera crews and media reported on the health crisis that arose as a result of rights degradation and illegal mining, logging and expansion of the agricultural industry. Early in his term, Lula tweeted after a highly publicized site visit: “What I saw in Roraima was more than a humanitarian crisis, it was a genocide. A premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a governmentwhich is insensitive to the suffering of the Brazilian people.”
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A year later, the frustration of non-governmental organizations is great. “Despite President Lula’s promises to address the situation when he launched the operation to expel the miners a year ago, the current situation in the Yanomami area is simply catastrophic“, Research Director Fiona Watson from the indigenous protection organization Survival International made a damning verdict this week and made serious allegations against the government.
The armed forces responsible deliberately delayed the operation to expel the illegal loggers and gold prospectors. “Many vital health items and urgently needed services are not fulfilling their role.”
Dario Kopenawa Yanomami, vice president of the Yanomami organization Hutukara, expressed a similar opinion: “Children are still dying from malaria and pneumonia, children are still dying from parasites and tuberculosis. The Yanomami and their country are in a humanitarian crisis. We will continue to fight and criticize the federal government and the state governments of Amazonas and Roraima.”
However, they now have to do this largely without the interest and outrage of the international media and Europeans. Sharp criticism of the Lula government like that of Bolsonaro can no longer be heard from Berlin and Brussels.
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