BRASILIA, Aug 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil’s backsliding on Amazon conservation under President Jair Bolsonaro and a likely Peronist return to power in Argentina could delay or even derail ratification of an EU-Mercosur trade agreement that took two decades to negotiate.
Deforestation has surged since Bolsonaro’s election last year. His plans to develop the Amazon and moves to weaken rainforest protection have alarmed environmentalists and given ammunition to European opponents of the trade deal with the South American common market.
Two former Brazilian environment ministers, Jose Sarney Filho and Izabella Teixeira, said Bolsonaro has rapidly undermined Brazil’s hard-won reputation as a responsible food producer and a leader in world environmental forums.
“Nobody imagined he would dismantle Brazil’s command and control mechanisms for protecting the environment so fast and effectively,” Sarney said in a interview.
He said Bolsonaro has deliberately demoralized environmental agencies and given wildcat miners an incentive to cut down trees and invade indigenous reservations.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned in June he would not sign the EU-Mercosur pact if Bolsonaro pulled Brazil out of the Paris climate accord.
Germany and Norway have suspended donations to a US$1.2 billion (986.6 million pounds) fund to back sustainable projects in the Amazon after the government shut down the steering committee that selects projects and planned to use it to compensate farmers who had land expropriated in protected areas.
Deforestation in Brazil more than tripled in July over the year, data from Brazil’s INPE space research agency shows. Bolsonaro attacked the data as misleading and fired the agency’s head.
Brazil’s powerful agribusiness sector, which managed to convince Bolsonaro not to withdraw Brazil from the Paris accord, is worried his stance on the Amazon could lead to a boycott against their exports.
Farming magnate and former Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi told Valor Economico newspaper that Bolsonaro’s “aggressive” speeches on the environment could sink the EU-Mercosur agreement and destroy years of work to get Brazil’s food exports an environmentally friendly stamp.
Separately, Sunday’s primaries in Argentina put the EU-Mercosur deal under a new cloud of uncertainty as Peronist candidate Alberto Fernandez emerged as the odd-on favourite to win the presidential election in October.
He has said he wants to renegotiate parts of the trade deal that do not suit Argentina. That could unravel the agreement given the rising resistance in Europe.
While Fernandez is a moderate Peronist, his running mate is former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner, a protectionist who is no fan of the EU deal.
Brazil’s foreign ministry declined to comment on the prospects for the EU-Mercosur agreement if Fernandez wins.
Foreign Trade Secretary Marcos Troyjo defended Brazil’s policy on the Amazon, saying, “The environmental policy of this government is the intelligent use of the country’s natural resources.” — NNN-AGENCIES
