Amazon fires spark European rift at G7 over Mercosur trade deal
The mass wildfires in Brazil’s Amazon divided European nations on Saturday, with political leaders sparring over whether or not to shelve a trade deal with Brazil and other South American nations over the raging fires.
French President Emmanuel Macron, the host of the G7 summit in Biarritz, southern France, took an early lead in opposing the EU-Mercusor trade deal over what he considers Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s failure to adequately address the fires and fight climate change.
Macron has threatened to veto the deal unless Brazil takes more decisive action to rein in the blazes. Irish leader Leo Varadkar has also expressed support for ditching the deal, which would remove trade barriers between the European member states and Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.
Bolsonaro has in turn accused Macron of having a “colonialist mentality” and of using the fires for political points-scoring.
EU nations take sides over Mercosur deal
Ahead of the G7 summit’s first day on Saturday, Macron had called for the attendees to hold emergency talks on the fires, and he addressed the topic again in a national address on Saturday as political leaders arrived in Biarritz for the summit.
The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, backed Macron’s position in a press conference during the G7 meeting.
The European Union “stands by the EU-Mercosur agreement,” he said, albeit adding: “It is hard to imagine a harmonious process of ratification by the European countries as long as the Brazilian government allows for the destruction of the green lungs of planet earth.”
Read more: Amazon fires: Can international pressure help put them out?
But Germany, a G7 member, has said that while it is concerned by the Amazon fires, scratching the trade deal would not be the “appropriate response” to what is happening in Brazil.
Fellow G7 member Great Britain lined up with Germany in wanting to keep the deal moving forward. Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticized Macron, saying, “There are all sorts of people who will take any excuse at all to interfere with trade and to frustrate trade deals, and I don’t want to see that.”
“I think I’d be reluctant to do anything, at this very difficult time for global free trade, to cancel another trade deal,” Johnson said.
Fires have continued to rage in the Amazon, including in the state of Rondonia, as this satellite image shows
The UK is currently scheduled to leave the EU at the end of October, meaning the country’s involvement in a future EU-Mercosur deal remains uncertain.
Spain, which has close ties to South America, also said that the trade deal should proceed. On Saturday, Spain’s government issued a statement seen by AFP saying it does not support blocking the deal. It is “precisely through applying the environmental clauses of the deal that we can advance” the fight against climate change, the statement said.
It added that the country “has been at the forefront of the last effort to sign the EU-Mercosur agreement that will open huge opportunities for the two regional blocs.”
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The Amazon burns, Bolsonaro feels the heat
Brazil’s burning
Four times the number of forest fires have burned so far this year in the Amazon compared to the whole of 2018, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research says. Ranchers and loggers are responsible for setting most of them as part of efforts to clear land for cattle. Environmental groups say land deforestation has increased dramatically since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in January.
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The Amazon burns, Bolsonaro feels the heat
Stark satellite view
Satellite images show the true scale of the deforestation over large swathes of difficult-to-reach tropical rainforest. Bolsonaro is facing intense international pressure to tackle the fires. The Brazilian president has blamed indigenous tribes, small-scale farmers and even global NGOs — without evidence. On Friday, he said he was considering deploying the army to help put out the fires.
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The Amazon burns, Bolsonaro feels the heat
Dry season fans flames
Brazil’s dry season is helping the blazes spread more quickly. In the country’s Amazonas state, heat from forest fires has been above average every day throughout August. To step up the pressure on Brazil, Norway and Germany have halted donations to Brazil’s Amazon support fund. France has even mooted the idea of blocking an EU trade deal with South American nations.
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The Amazon burns, Bolsonaro feels the heat
Chemical deforestation
Brazil isn’t the only country involved in deforestation. Peru, with the second-largest expanse of Amazonian forest, is also seeing a growing problem. Illegal gold miners have been accused of causing irreversible environmental damage to more than 110 square kilometers (42 square miles) of forest and river basins through the liberal use of fertilizers.
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The Amazon burns, Bolsonaro feels the heat
Other neighbors affected
Brazil’s other neighbors Bolivia and Paraguay have also struggled to contain forest fires. About 7,500 square kilometers (2,900 square miles) of land has been affected in Bolivia. The country has even deployed a Boeing 747-400 SuperTanker carrying 76,000 liters (20,000 gallons) of retardant, a substance used to stop fires.
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The Amazon burns, Bolsonaro feels the heat
Lungs are burning
As well as political pressure, the sheer scale of the wildfires has sparked public protests against Brazilian interests around the world, including the country’s embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus. The Amazon is billed as the “the lungs of the planet,” as the rainforest produces about a fifth of the total oxgyen needed for life on earth.
World’s largest free trade area on the edge?
All EU member states and the European Parliament, as well as the Mercosur nations, need to ratify the deal for it to enter force.
The deal, which took 20 years to negotiate, would create the largest free trade area in the world.
The fires in Brazil’s Amazon this year are the highest number of any year since 2013. Official figures show there have been 78,383 in 2019, with new blazes having broken out over the past few days.
Experts have attributed the fires to deforestation caused by the clearing of land during the dry summer months to prepare for crops and grazing.
cmb/msh (AFP, Reuters, AP)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/amazon-fires-spark-european-rift-at-g7-over-mercosur-trade-deal/a-50154578?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf