Fávaro, a former senator and agricultural producer, guaranteed at a press conference in São Paulo that Brazil is “open to negotiations”, but rejected the EU’s attempt to introduce into the treaty under discussion the possibility of sanctioning products from deforested areas.
The Brazilian minister considered these attempts an affront to the rules of the World Trade Organization and justified the “lofty speech” of the Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in his conversations with European leaders.
“If the EU remains exaggerated, we are working on new openings [of markets], in a new world scenario,” said Fávaro, referring to the BRICS, a group of emerging economies of which Brazil is a part along with Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The minister pointed out that Brazil already has a “highly restrictive” forest code that obliges farmers in the Amazon to leave 80% of the vegetation on their lands untouched.
Fávaro stated that Brazil “delivered for free” the forest code “to the detriment” of Brazilian farmers in the region and in favor of “the well-being of those in Europe”.
“The agreement does not have a word about social inclusion, it only has environmental obligations”, criticized the Brazilian minister.
On the other hand, he recognized that the South American country, one of the largest agricultural producers in the world, can still make progress in the traceability of its crops to guarantee their legal origin.
It is up to Brazil, which occupies the ‘pro tempore’ presidency of Mercosur (bloc formed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), to propose to the other members a response to the new environmental demands that have not yet been sent to the European Union.
Despite the differences, both Mercosur governments and the European Commission said they hoped to sign the trade agreement before the end of the year.
