Several European leaders have threatened to leave or vote against the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, following the outbreak of severe uncontrolled wildfires in the Amazon rainforest.
The EU-Mercosur agreement was signed in June in Brussels and was expected to boost the Brazilian industrial sector. From the perspective of Brazil, a key Mercosur member, the agreement would help it extend existing quotas for a number of products, possibly including steel.
Brazil’s steel association, IABr, had criticized the agreement at the time, saying the local steel sector would lose “preference” within the Mercosur trade bloc, which is comprised of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, said Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, lied to him on the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, about his commitment to protect the environment, and as such, it would unfeasible for France to support the Mercosur-European Union (UE) agreement.
Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, said he would vote against the trade agreement if Bolsonaro doesn’t respect his “environmental commitments.”
“There is no way that Ireland will vote for the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement if Brazil does not honor its environmental commitments,” Varadkar said in a statement. “President Bolsonaro’s efforts to blame the fires on environmental NGOs is Orwellian,” Varadkar’s statement said, according to several media reports.