Trade: Joint business statement - EU-Mercosur association agreement

Orgalim, together with the coalition of European business associations representing different European sectors, call for the swift ratification of the EU-Mercosur association agreement. With the political agreement reached already 2 years ago (June 2019), now is the time to move forward and unlock the manifold mutual benefits that this agreement will deliver.

The EU-Mercosur agreement:

• is the largest and most ambitious trade agreement ever negotiated by both sides, provides regulatory certainty for trade in both goods and services, and establishes better trade links between countries of respectively 440 and 260 million citizens. The agreement will unlock growth and help both regions to recover from the current economic and public health crisis, invest in the green transition, and diversify global supply chains and our core market base.

• includes the most advanced sustainable development provisions which will foster partnership, help mitigate climate change and bind both sides to the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement. Unilateral legislative initiatives at EU level, such as the upcoming initiative on deforestation and the review of existing rules on timber trade and fight against illegal logging, will enhance this cooperation and effectively ensure that exports to the EU will not contribute to deforestation or soil degradation. 

• includes enforceable commitments on workers' rights and environmental protection through a dedicated dispute settlement mechanism that includes an active role for civil society organisations and calls on the expertise of international bodies, whose reports and recommendations must be made public. In case of non-respect of any of these provisions, an automatic mechanism will trigger formal government consultations.

Failure to ratify the agreement would leave the EU and Mercosur with fewer instruments to build mutual trust and cooperate to face the biggest challenge of our time. Moreover, non-ratification will lead to Mercosur countries continuing to trade, or even expanding their trade, with other trading partners that have substantially lower environmental and labour standards.

To read this joint statement in full, please download the document above.