It’s raining in the rainforest, but Robert Habeck still has time for a snappy video. “As always, when you go somewhere else, the perspective changes,” says the Green Economics Minister to the camera. It was no different in Brazil. After all, there is a lot of discussion in Germany about whether a trade agreement between the EU and the four Mercosur countries could also help protect the rainforest and the climate. “What I’ve learned here is that it’s not only possible, but also wanted by the Brazilian side.” The task is now to “do it right and well”. Then Habeck rushes to the speedboat and rushes back to Manaus.
That was almost exactly a week ago, and already the lofty goal is in doubt. The reason for this is the draft of that “additional instrument” that is intended to help the Mercosur agreement over the last cliff. He lies the Süddeutsche Zeitung before. Development organizations don’t think that’s “right and good” at all, quite the opposite. “That’s just window dressing,” says Armin Paasch, human rights expert at Misereor. It is about “a non-binding interpretation under international law on a non-binding sustainability chapter without any sanction mechanism”. Human rights violations, environmental and climate damage threatened by a trade agreement “will not be averted by this instrument”.
The negotiations on the agreement have actually ended since 2019, but it was never completed. The Europeans did not want to sign a contract with right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro, who did not value the protection of the rainforest. The situation has changed since leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took over in Brasília. The last reservations against the agreement should now be cleared up by that additional instrument.
As a kind of appendix to the agreement, it specifies the particularly critical chapters on trade and sustainable development – i.e. specifications regarding environmental, climate protection and social standards. After all, more trade in agricultural products, for example, could also mean more exploitation of the rainforest and more intensive agriculture. The appendix is intended to mark out a narrow framework for this – at least on paper.
With regard to climate protection, the draft refers, among other things, to the Paris Climate Protection Agreement and to goals for the protection of the rainforest. Both parties are obliged to “take effective measures to preserve and improve sinks and stores of greenhouse gases, including forests,” says the section on forests. This includes the intention to reduce deforestation by at least 50 percent by 2025. They want to “ensure that the products that EU and Mercosur citizens consume do not contribute to deforestation and forest degradation.”
Some countries are withdrawing from the agreement
A section on workers’ rights is designed to help prevent child labor. They intend to work together more intensively “in the promotion and protection of human rights”. And finally, the “development of sustainable value chains in the EU and Mercosur” is given priority, including “promotion of the circular economy and resource efficiency”.
But critics see nothing more than declarations of intent, even in Habeck’s party. “Unfortunately, the implementation mechanism remains toothless,” says Green MEP Anna Cavazzini. “If the next Brazilian president wants to clear rainforest again, then at most there will be one critical report. And that’s it.”
The EU Commission also fears that the mood could change. Both economically and geopolitically, everything speaks in favor of sealing the agreement, it says there. Finally, China could step into the gap if the EU backs down. “We believe we now have a chance to finalize this,” said a senior EU official. The additional instrument contains a legally binding interpretation of the sustainability chapter – only sanctions are difficult. If you want to negotiate them in, the other side will want to change the “balance of the concessions”. You start all over again.
And while in Germany the responsible Minister Habeck is doing his Brazil tour to promote the agreement, France, Austria and the Netherlands are moving away from it – which is also overshadowing the current EU summit. In any case, there is only one vague sentence in a draft of the summit declaration: “A strategic discussion about the geopolitical aspects of trade” was held, it says. Result: open.