What makes it more ridiculous, is that fact that we from the EU are shouting US is getting isolated, but some of the biggest economies in the world do not want to trade with 4 countries from the 3rd world, because we think will get bankrupt because of that.
I'm sure everyone would be happy to purchase stuff that respect our own standards. We forbid our farmers to use some chemicals because they are bad for health and nature, it would be completely stupid to start purchasing food abroad that is made using those chemicals, don't you agree?
Sorry, the standards imposed to meat from south america is way higher than the European. Wine is nearly impossible. And spicies like paprika also require higher standards than in Europe. I don’t know what you mean with that. Free trade does not mean there are no standards to met. Same standards will be imposed (as are already imposed) to anything imported in the EU. Also in south America, because of size you don’t need nearly as much chemicals as in EU anyway.
Last but not least, that of quality standards and chemicals doesn’t hold anyway, as there are already loads of products coming from those countries already… I look always where things come from, and fruits come up to 80% from South America (including Mercosur). Dang even apples from Argentina in Germany, which is frankly non sense to me! It’s just not about quality, is good all protectionism and imposing tariffs, just as Trump is doing, but if we do, is ok.
Yes, I agree with the standards, but has absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with the agreement Mercosur/EU. The standard will be imposed for ANY product sold in the EU, doesn't matter where it comes from, as it should be.
Do you have sources for what you say for meat for example? From what I could read on this topic, they don't have the same traceability constraints, may use growth hormones that are forbidden here, etc.
To add to the absurdity, one of the thing we Europeans will be able to export more to SA is chemicals, including those which we forbid here because they damage health and environment...
Or people exporting meat I happen to know. Independent of all requirements for anything in the EU, that of course has to be met, they will ask for lots of things above and beyond. That is the reality of the market. If you want to play with such a big market, it won’t be easy.
I know a guy who had paprika plantation, wanted to sell to Germany. They asked conserved samples of the last 20 years to guarantee consistency. That is just not normal.
Ah yes ok, that some high quality importers are careful and asking higher standards I totally believe it, and can easily understand that they might ask even more guarantees than from the farm next to them.
But there are always buyers for the cheapest products too.
> but some of the biggest economies in the world do not want to trade with 4 countries from the 3rd world,
It's this attitude that makes non-Europeans (especially those of us without European heritage) less sympathetic to European pleas of support, yet it's your politicians that try to sign a defense pacts with "third world countries" like India [0]
Offence is taken, not given. I think it's an overreaction trying to find something to get offended about, instead of seeing the essence of what the parent was trying to clumsily say.
It's because of agriculture and us here in Europe losing our food-related resilience because of that. The tertiary sector won't save you in case of a continental blockade and the Argentinian/Brazilian grain suddenly becoming unavailable. "We'll go back to our farmers here in Europe!" Oops, you've just pushed them into bankruptcy a few years ago as a result of Mercosur, so good luck with that.
Well that doesn’t seem to matter in another areas of the economy… meanwhile in Germany we are experiencing an historical de-industrialization. I don’t see nearly as much fuss about that.
Severely downsizing or shutting down the military production, how has it been working to get it running again so far? And now imagine if Germany wouldn't have the luxury of hiding behind the Ukrainian/American/Polish/Finnish backs and would have to actually fight the war at the same time.
Well, returning the food production while the population is starving would have been an even harder problem.
