Yesterday, a major, even historic, trade agreement was signed - between the European Union and the Mercosur countries. This is the largest international union in South America. There are Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay. It was reached after 25 years of negotiations, but there are also dissatisfied ones.
Weeks earlier, farmers protested in France, Poland, Hungary, Austria and Greece, including. A new pan-European protest is planned for next week.
The agreement is presented as a historic success, but for some farmers it represents a danger and risk. Why?
„This agreement is truly historic for the simple reason that it has been under negotiation for over 25 years. The point is that the chapter „Agriculture“ in our opinion is not well thought out enough, is not balanced and somehow the voice of agricultural producers throughout Europe was not heard“, commented Iliya Prodanov, chairman of the National Association of Grain Producers, to bTV.
„Because the countries of the European Union have a very specific agriculture. Agriculture that is placed under very serious restrictions. Agriculture where the cost of production is much higher than in the rest of the world. This was seen as an effect when Ukraine was admitted to the European market - what happened to the agricultural producers“, he pointed out.
“The Mercosur countries are a greater threat even than Ukraine, because firstly, they are very large producers, secondly, they produce according to much different standards than us, and here we must not miss the fact of genetically modified products. In Brazil, 99% of the soy and 95% of the corn is genetically modified and this is according to data from the American government“, commented Iliya Prodanov.
In his words, we must approach trade with these countries very carefully.
“The big problem in this case is that agricultural producers in Europe no longer believe in standards, controls and quotas. We have been playing this game with Ukraine for the last 4 years. "When importing from Ukraine, there is effective border control, quotas, and protective mechanisms - none of these tools had any effect or worked for these 4 years. The market was simply collapsed. All consumers of our products in Europe were displaced from these markets by Ukraine," said the chairman of the National Association of Grain Producers.
He commented that over the last 5 years in Bulgaria, 35% of farms have disappeared. "The trend is more or less the same in the European Union", added Prodanov.
"The big problem is not whether we will be able to sell our production, but at what price we will sell it and whether this price will even cover our production costs", he explained.
"Currently, the entire agricultural sector in Europe has become a bargaining chip so that Europe can export cars to South America", pointed out the chairman of the National Association of Grain Producers.