From September 20th to 24th the negotiators for Mercosul [Mercado Común del Sur] met in Brussels. Among them were the negotiators from Brazil and the European Union to make bids on tariffs and integration processes. The agreements which have been negotiated in the technical and diplomatic commissions now will later be endorsed by a Ministerial meeting, held in Brasilia, from October 20th to 24th. The urgency for such agreements, which were reached without any transparency or consultation with the Brazilian society and the Cone Sur, is due to pressures from the Europeans, who have a negotiation mandate till October 31st, and therefore want to close their agreement with Mercosul before they change their current negotiators for each country. If Brazilian diplomats were cautious with the negotiations on FTAA, in the case of the European Union, the so called negotiators behaved like second class merchants, sell- motherland, without respecting or consulting any sector of our society. It seems that our "negotiators" or "hand overers" have been commanded by representatives from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and by economic groups that have the only dream of exporting a little bit more of sugar cane, alcohol, meat, and other raw materials. Without any great additional advantages. But in exchange, they handed over the opening of our markets. European transnationals are grateful. No one gives a damn for the jobs of the Brazilian people. The degree of the "handing over" was such, that embarrassed, the representative of the Ministry of Agrarian Development, withdrew in protest from the negotiations. Let\'s see the results bellow. 1. THE NATURE OF THE AGREEMENT THAT HAS BEEN NEGOTIATED The bioregional Agreement between Mercosul and the European Union presents, since its conception, an "exchange" between the offensive interests of Mercosul in Agriculture, with dreams of expanding its sales in Europe, and the hand over of our markets to European industrial and service companies. Now, the offensive interests of the Brazilian negotiators concentrate in some agricultural raw materials: meat, sugar, alcohol, coffee. On the other hand, Europeans are interested in goods with more value-added and concentrate in investment themes, services, governmental purchases, intellectual property, wines and industrial goods. The mandate of the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, and his commissioners, will expire on October 31st, when a new team representing the 25 countries of Europe will take over the negotiations. That is the reason for the urgency in closing an Agreement before that date. Since Brazilian society has its attention focused in the elections and there is a certain dispersion among social movements, governmental "representatives" seized the mood to accelerate the negotiating process between Mercosul and the European Union in great hurry, without any transparency, without any political legitimacy, and without any previous consultation with the productive sectors of society. We do not believe that the actual almighty FIESP [Federation of the Industries in São Paulo State] agrees with this process that will liquidate part of our national industry. No dialogues with the most affected sectors by the agreement were established, not even technical studies evaluating its impact in the Brazilian job market have been done. See bellow the two most emblematic cases of the "handing over" that is on course in the negotiations. 2. IN THE ACCESS TO MARKETS Brazil has offered 90% access to our market, which in practice implies, that European products will enter the country without paying tariff, in other words, zero import tariff in Brazil for up to 10 years. One of the most worrying and pathetic cases is the case of milk, which is considered by Mercosul a sensitive product and has now an import tariff of 27% for the European milk to enter in Brazil and in Mercosul. However, the list of exception for products recognized as sensitive by Mercosul has not been applied to the bi- regional Agreement. Brazilian Family/campesina Agriculture is responsible for 82% of 1.8 million establishments producing milk in Brazil, which is at least 80% of the total production. If the agreement was signed today, the bracket for importing milk, which is 27%, would be 0%. The import, which is already high, above all in powder milk and whey, would be disastrous and would greatly affect national prices and the life of millions of small farmers. Certainly, more than one million small farmers who produce today, approximately 30 litres a day, would not have any means of productivity to compete with the Europeans, and would go bankrupt, losing their jobs, and swelling the queues of the rural exodus. The same applies for the production of onions, garlic, wine, and peaches, among others. All of them produced by small farms. Therefore, with the Agreement Mercosul-EU we will have an increase in the rural exodus in Brazil Another example of the uneven advantages that can be obtained with the agreement is in the meat sector: Europeans offer us smaller quotas from those we already export today, which means, 116 tons, when we already export 275 thousand tons. If that was not enough, this quota is not offered at once, but in stages along a period of 10 years, for the four partners of the Block. In other words, even handing over our markets in the illusion that Europeans would open their markets for larger quotas in agricultural exports, where we have better production conditions, even then, they protect themselves, while the Brazilian government hands over everything, Besides, they propose a mechanism that increases import tariffs when exports from Mercosul increase. That means, the more we export, the higher the tariff will be. Another serious point of the negotiation is the theme of the subsidies to Europeans exports, which was left out of the agreement. The European subsidy for milk exports is € 1.7 billion euros for this year, 2004 and it is expected to be € 1,2 billion euros in 2005. Nothing was agreed in the negotiation about how the theme will be approached or how to protect our Family Agriculture from this volume of subsidies. Also, nothing was agreed about safe- guards against surges of importing subsidized agricultural products. 3. SERVICE SECTOR The service sector of Mercosul is in a even more serious situation, and it interests us, Brazilians, even not being related to directly to agriculture. But, Brazil is opening up completely in the communication sector, environmental, financial and bank services and insurance. It means that transnational companies will be able to operate without any restrictions or conditioning in all these areas, controlling these markets which are strategic for the future of the country. And what is even worse, while we make areas which have high added-value flexible, there is no opening from the Europeans to allow the access of our products with added-value to compete with them. 4. INVESTMENT AREA The Agreement Mercosul-EU would be the first international commitment that Brazil would make with the investment sector. Even though Brazil is now an open country for foreign investment, an Agreement of that kind would remove the power of decision from the Government to legislate and control in order to protect national interests whenever it is necessary. In the initial offer, Brazilian Government introduced restrictions to foreign investment in agriculture which could, eventually, compromise national policies for the implementation of the agrarian reform, aiming above all to protect PRONAF (National Programme for the Agrarian Reform) and to maintain restrictive measures for the acquisition of land by foreigners. However, the EU handed over a document to Itamaraty where it asks for the removal of the restriction with reference to the "agrarian reform", and agriculture, among others. 5. INTELECTUAL PROPERTY The community proposal already exceeds, by far, the standards established in the TRIPs, and agreed in the scope of the WTO. For example: the EU is pressing to have included in the Agreement the protection for products such as parmesan cheese. They want to force us to follow intellectual property rules beyond those the country can accept. It is important to remember that the community legislation about the protection of Geographical Indications is now the object of a panel in the WTO, which was motioned by the US and Australia against the EU, having Brazil and Argentina as third party interested. The Europeans also want to make sure that intellectual property applies to wines, cheeses, hams, etc. That means to say that we will not be able to produce any type of parmesan, gorgonzola cheese, etc. Since these GIs were already European patents. We would not even be able to produce our mortadela [Bologna], because our "mortadela Bologna" is under protection of the Geographical Identification. Consequently, what the Europeans did not get in the scope of the WTO, which places more restrictions and better conditions for all countries, in the case of the EU- Mercosul, they managed to impose all restrictions to protect their interests and remunerate their products. In other words the agreement is worse than what we had negotiated in the WTO. 5. GOVERNMENT PURCHASES Mercosul offered preference for the Europeans, in relation to other countries and regions, for public purchases through the mechanism of consultation and transparency. This means that every time there is public purchase, Europeans are entitled to request a consultation. If the participation of Europeans is denied for tender, they must be informed formally. At first sight the mechanism seems harmless, but would we be able to support the pressure from the Europeans after for the opening of our governmental purchases after a few refusals? That means that after the agreement is signed, all public purchases, above a certain figure will not only have to be open for international biddings, but above all give the right to Europeans to have international priority in the competition. Obviously in several supplying areas they can compete in better conditions than our industry, and thus compete for public investments in infra- structure. 6. CONCLUSIONS If Brazilian diplomacy was capable of stopping the negotiation of the FTAA because they were far from meeting Brazilian aims and needs as a project of sustained development and independent, why did we allow the agreement with the Europeans to go ahead, which in practice is even worse than FTAA? But besides comparisons with the FTAA this agreement risks important sectors of family agriculture, and risks important sectors of our industry and services. Risk the jobs of millions of Brazilians. To get nothing. With only the illusion of free-trade? It is in fact a shameful neo-colonialism that demands immediate reaction from the organized social sectors of Brazilian society. We cannot silence before this shameful submission of the interests of Brazilian people to European capital, practiced by negotiators that should be called "hand overs" who have no legitimacy to represent us. In New York, President Lula stated the importance of food security and social justice. However, the Agreement Mercosul-EU affects our food security. Therefore, our sovereignty. Once again, peasants and the Brazilian people, our workers\' jobs pay the onus of trade openings, in exchange for questionable advantages for a few export sectors. We hope the Brazilian government will honour their campaign commitments with the Brazilian people, and defend at least our jobs. What is at stake is our sovereignty and our future as a country. A project for national development is at stake. The Brazilian government has the word. Brasília, September 28th 2004. VIA CAMPESINA BRAZIL - Movement of the Landless Rural Workers - MST
- Movement of Small farmers - MPA
- Movement of Peasant Women - MMC
- Movement of those Affected by Damns - MAB
- Comissão pastoral da Terra- CPT
- Federation of the Agronomy Students of Brazil - FEAB
- Pastoral da Juventude Rural- PJR