Trade at any cost?

Study on the European Union's Free Trade Agreements with Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay), Mexico, Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia

Authors: Alessa Hartmann, Thomas Fritz

foodwatch/PowerShift

Berlin, February 2018

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The European Union is currently negotiating a series of free trade agreeements: with Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, Vietnam and the Mercosur trade bloc. To date, the negotiations have been taking place with practically no public oversight, and there has been little debate over the risks. However, the planned EU trade deals include many of the same controversial elements as the shelved TTIP agreement with the U.S. and the already-in-force CETA agreement with Canada. These are the findings of the comprehensive report "Trade at Any Cost?". On the basis of concrete examples, it exposes the weaknesses of these agreements with respect to, inter alia, consumer protection, meat imports and pesticides approval.