Police fired tear gas and water cannons, blocked roads with tractors and threw potatoes and eggs at thousands of farmers who gathered in Brussels on Thursday as European leaders gathered to discuss a controversial trade deal with South America.
Protesters on tractors protesting against the EU-Mercosur agreement gathered near the Europa Building, where leaders of the 27 EU member states were to discuss amending or postponing the trade deal, while two rallies converged on Luxembourg Square, just a stone’s throw from the European Parliament.
“What we want is to earn a living through our work. We are against Mercosur because it is not normal to import meat and products from other countries that do not respect the same rules,” one farmer told Euronews.
“We have a lot of rules that we should respect and they don’t, and yet they (the EU) are going to increase imports,” he said.
The deal, which eliminates tariffs on nearly all goods traded between the EU and five Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia) for 15 years, has faced growing resistance.
Italy on Wednesday signaled it would join the French-led opposition to the Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement, after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told parliament that signing the deal was “premature” and that Italy wanted “adequate mutual guarantees for our agricultural sector” before approving the deal.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived at the summit in January to maintain his opposition and call for further negotiations. “We’re not ready. It doesn’t fit,” he said. “This agreement cannot be signed.”
President Macron said he had discussed postponing the agreement with officials from Italy, Poland, Belgium, Austria and Ireland. The government is calling for safeguards against economic turmoil, tighter regulations for Mercosur countries, including restrictions on pesticides, and increased inspections at EU ports.
Italy’s position would give France enough votes to veto the agreement, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to sign on Saturday, and which requires the support of at least two-thirds of EU member states to proceed.
“This does not mean that Italy intends to block or oppose[the deal]but that it will approve it only if it includes sufficient mutual guarantees,” Meloni said.
Will von der Leyen still go to Brazil?
Negotiations on this agreement lasted 25 years. If ratified, it would cover a market of 780 million people and about a quarter of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Supporters say the deal would replace Beijing’s export controls and Washington’s tariff policies. Critics warn this will weaken environmental regulations and damage the EU’s agricultural sector.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said ahead of the Brussels summit that delaying or abandoning the deal would undermine the EU’s global standing. “If the European Union wants to maintain its credibility in global trade policy, it must take a decision now,” he said.
Agathe Desmarais, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the deal also represented strategic competition between the West and China over Latin America.
“If the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement fails to be signed, there is a risk that Latin America’s economies will move closer to Beijing’s orbit,” he said.
Von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa are expected to sign the agreement in Brazil this weekend, although it may be postponed.
“We must eliminate excessive dependence. This can only be done through a network of free trade agreements,” von der Leyen said. “It is very important to get the green light for Mercosur.”
miley vs lula
Political tensions within Mercosur in recent years, particularly between Argentina’s liberal President Javier Millay and Brazil’s centre-left Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have not weakened the South American leader’s determination to form an alliance with Europe.
“We are optimistic that we will receive approval from the European Union next Saturday and therefore be able to proceed with the signing of the treaty,” Uruguay’s Economy and Finance Minister Gabriel Odon said.
Lula has defended the deal between South America’s largest economies. As host of the upcoming summit, Brazil’s president is betting his diplomatic credibility on a deal ahead of next year’s general elections in which he will seek re-election.
At Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Lula expressed frustration with the Italian and French opponents. He said Saturday would decide the fate of the agreement.
“If we don’t do it now, Brazil will not sign any more deals while I am president,” Lula said, adding that the deal would “protect multilateralism” as US President Donald Trump pursues unilateralism.
Milley, a close ideological ally of President Trump, also supports the deal. “We have to stop thinking of Mercosur as a shield that protects us from the rest of the world and start thinking of it as a spear that allows us to effectively penetrate global markets,” he said.
