Document type : Article published on the Euractiv website
Author: Natasha Foote
Preview: In an unprecedented move, the EU has included the first animal welfare-based condition in the Mercosur trade agreement, but stakeholders warned that this does not go far enough to save the controversial deal that is facing increasing opposition in Europe.
The entry into force of the Mercosur deal - set to forge a trade area between the EU27 and the Mercosur countries, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - remains a controversial topic amongst agrifood stakeholders. Some EU countries have also raised environmental concerns and threatened not to ratify the deal.
According to market access provisions agreed in the EU's free trade agreement (FTA) with Mercosur, which the European Commission published on 15 July 2021, EU-related standards must be applied to preferential imports of shelled eggs from Mercosur.
This means that, in order to benefit from the duty-free access to the EU market, Mercosur egg producers will have to certify that they respect EU-equivalent rules for laying hen welfare.
EURACTIV was informed that, as far as the Commission is aware, this is the first inclusion of an animal-welfare related condition in an FTA, setting a significant precedent in trade policy.
In 2020, 1,825 tonnes of eggs, or 7.4% of EU imports, were imported from Argentina to the EU. Other Mercosur countries were not amongst the main importers.
The move comes on the back of an increasing focus on animal welfare in the EU, which is a key theme of the EU's flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy.
While this push for higher animal welfare standards has been widely welcomed, farmers have voiced concerns that the imposition of higher standards of animal welfare in the EU may see their business undercut by imports of meat produced in third countries under lower standards.
Earlier this year, a top EU official told EURACTIV that they believed it would be "wise" to impose the equivalent standards of animal welfare on meat imports coming into the EU and that this would be compliant with the WTO rules provided it was based on "ethical grounds".
"Animal welfare can be accommodated in the World Trade Organisation rules," the official said, provided that the response was "proportionate to the problem it was trying to fix" and done in a transparent manner".
So far, there have been no reactions to this development from WTO members, EURACTIV was informed.
Stephanie Ghislain, trade and animal welfare programme leader at campaign organisation Eurogroup for Animals, welcomed the move but warned that this provision does not go far enough.
"The published schedules also clarified that the EU will not impose similar measures to other animal products, which means that it will grant more market access to most animal products from the Mercosur, without any conditions related to animal welfare or sustainability," she said.
EURACTIV was informed that the Commission has no other inclusions related to animal welfare planned as part of the EU-Mercosur or other FTAs.
This will "further fuel the intensification of animal farming in Mercosur countries", especially in the beef and chicken meat sectors, Ghislain warned, pointing out that this intensification will be detrimental both to animals and the environment.
"The cooperation mechanisms included in the agreement at the moment - on animal welfare and trade and sustainable development - are too weak to mitigate this negative impact," she warned, adding that the deal thus remains a bad one for animals, people and the planet.
As such, the deal must be renegotiated in order to integrate strong and enforceable provisions on animal welfare standards, she said.
