The recently announced free trade agreement with Australia was a major win for European businesses and consumers and, like the Mercosur deal, had been years in the making. Why, then, did the latter trigger protests while the former was met with crickets?
While both agreements would help diversify the European Union's trade relationships, we did not see the same mobilization among farm organizations or the same politically charged debate around the EU-Australia FTA.
This was partly due to the significant political capital and credibility these groups had already spent opposing the Mercosur deal. There is a growing sense that they — along with the national governments sympathetic to their arguments — may have overplayed their hand.
This article is part of the The Parliament's special policy report "The EU's trade question."
Wrong reasons
Claims from farmers' groups that increased tariff-free exports would be the death knell of European farming were not supported by evidence, as independent studies have shown.
On the contrary, the deal could boost EU agri-food exports by 50% to the Mercosur countries — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — while strengthening protections for high-quality European products.
At the same time, scaremongering over standards and hormones in beef was poorly received by politicians and businesses familiar with the reality: the Mercosur deal would in fact introduce stricter checks.
Such checks are already taking place and have led to the suspension of Brazilian beef imports since September unless significant changes are made.
This demonstrates that the deal is functioning and that these tactics were aimed at pressuring governments and MEPs into adopting an excessively protectionist approach to trade, at a time when Europe needs greater confidence and openness in its international economic relations.
Another reason for the relatively muted response to the EU-Australia FTA may be that many of the arguments used against Mercosur simply do not apply to the deal with Canberra.
The volume of tariff-free imports agreed from Australia is negligible compared with the overall size of the EU meat industry. This partly reflects a softer stance from Australian negotiators, who recognized the limited flexibility the Commission had on import quotas.
Concerns over health risks have also been largely absent because of closer regulatory and cultural alignment. Australian grass-fed cattle farming practices are broadly similar to those in Europe, making it harder for farm organizations to deploy the same arguments used against the Mercosur deal.
Finally, the different reactions are also linked to rapidly shifting geopolitical circumstances.
European governments and businesses, increasingly wary of tariffs and trade wars, are seeking new markets to diversify their economic ties and protect revenues. The war in Iran has reinforced that urgency while also driving up the cost of key farm inputs, particularly fuel and fertilizer.
Ultimately, any potential losses for farmers from this deal are likely to be minimal, if they materialize at all. The experience of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada suggests otherwise and, in any case, such losses would be outweighed by the broader benefits FTAs bring to the EU.
A new agenda
In the meantime, farm groups are rightly realigning their focus toward the concrete issues that will impact European farmers.
One such challenge is the Common Agricultural Policy in the next long-term EU budget from 2028 to 2034, currently under negotiation. It is the single most important policy for European farmers, and EU policymakers must get it right.
Beyond this, structural pressures such as ageing demographics and climate change must be addressed urgently through cooperation with governments. Against this backdrop, haggling over the minutiae of an otherwise beneficial trade deal risks becoming counterproductive.
Given the scale of these immediate and long-term challenges, it is hardly surprising that there has been so little opposition to a trade deal that serves both European consumers and businesses.
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