The European Commission has not yet made a decision on the provisional application of the trade agreement with Mercosur. This was indicated on Tuesday by the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Christophe Hansen, who pointed out that the matter is still up in the air while its legality is being examined. Although the mandate given to the Council is clear and the Commission has the possibility to opt for a provisional application, for now, the decision has not been made, Hansen stated before Irish deputies, a country that, along with France, Poland, Austria, and Hungary, voted against the treaty considering it a threat to their agricultural sectors.
The EU leader defended the agreement before the members of the Irish Parliament's Committee on European Affairs, arguing that the weaknesses in the EU's defense expose its economic and commercial vulnerability. "In these turbulent political times, it is important not to put all your eggs in one basket," Hansen emphasized, referring to the current tense relations between the United States and China.
The Commissioner lamented the European Parliament's blockage of the approval of the agreement with Mercosur, as well as its subsequent referral to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), a decision that he believes "has not helped" because it could delay its ratification by up to two years. Hansen's intervention before the committee made up of Irish deputies occurs after he described the position of the Irish Government on the pact as "incoherent" and "inconsistent" in an interview with the Dublin Sunday Business Post.
The agreement was signed on January 17 in a ceremony in Asunción and must be ratified by at least one country from Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) and by the European Union to enter into force. The European Parliament cannot ratify it until the CJEU gives its opinion, but legally the Commission could decide to start applying it provisionally without waiting for the Eurochamber, a point that the community executive has yet to clarify.
The President of the European Council, António Costa, has urged the Commission to apply the agreement once it has been ratified by one of the Mercosur partners, as the Twenty-Seven have already given their approval to the pact.
During an intervention on Tuesday in the Senate, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, Luis Planas, defended the application of the trade agreement with Mercosur despite the opposition of the Eurochamber, considering that its halt would be an "exception" to the usual functioning of EU trade agreements. Although the Agriculture Minister believes that the appeal before the Court of Justice promoted by the European Parliament is a "legitimate delaying tactic", he recalled that the legal question is already resolved and has precedents, such as the 2017 ruling on the agreement between the EU and Singapore.
For Planas, once one of the Mercosur countries ratifies the agreement — a process that Brazil is already accelerating — the European Commission must activate its provisional application, something he hopes will happen "sooner rather than later." The minister insisted that the pact has guarantees and safeguard clauses to protect European agricultural production, as well as for the protection of designations of origin and geographical indications. Planas emphasized that the agreement represents a strategic opportunity for Spain, allowing the export of up to 93% of its agri-food products without tariffs, such as wine, oil, cheese, processed products, or pork. Likewise, he denied that agriculture is a "bargaining chip" and rejected that the pact harms food sovereignty or specific sectors.
In justifying his opposition to the trade agreement, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, argued on Tuesday that the same rules that are imposed on French farmers must be applied to imports from Mercosur countries. "When there is a rule, it must be imposed on those who come, on the goods that are imported. That is why we fight for the famous mirror clauses. And that is why we fight for controls," the French president indicated during a visit to the northeast of the country dedicated to agriculture. Macron called for the same treatment for agriculture as that granted in recent months for steel and automobiles: "European preference and protection."
France has been opposing the EU-Mercosur trade agreement for years but did not manage to gather a sufficient blocking minority to prevent its approval by the Twenty-Seven at the beginning of January. The French Government demanded more guarantees for its farmers, particularly regarding the safeguard clause that would be activated in the event of imbalances in trade between the two blocs, as well as a stricter mechanism for the so-called mirror clauses to ensure that imports from Mercosur comply with the same health and environmental rules as European products. Paris also demanded strict controls at the borders to ensure supervision of imported products.