What’s the problem?
The EU already imports huge quantities of agricultural goods - particularly soy and beef - which are helping destroy the rainforests of the Amazon and tropical savannah of the Cerrado.
But it’s not just the environment that suffers. Agricultural expansion leads to Indigenous People in Brazil facing threats, intimidation, murder and violent land seizures. The proposed EU-Mercosur deal will exacerbate this trend as it aims to increase trade but fails to provide enforceable provisions to prevent it from causing deforestation or land-grabbing. Such provisions are particularly important under the current Brazilian government, led by President Jair Bolsonaro.
