The EU Can Push Bolsonaro to Save the Amazon
Europe’s trade deal with South America should be amended to work against deforestation.
Deforestation was a growing problem even before the fires.
Photographer: Carl de Souza/AFP, via Getty Images
French President Emmanuel Macron dropped a bombshell on Friday: His office said France is opposed to the ratification of the European Union’s latest big trade deal, with the Mercosur group of South American countries, because one of the group’s members, Brazil, has shown a lack of commitment to preserving the Amazon rain forest.
The deal, reached in June by the European Commission after 20 years of negotiations, still needs to be approved by each EU member state and the European Parliament. It’s a key part of the legacy of the outgoing commission, headed by Jean-Claude Juncker, the biggest deal the EU has ever struck in terms of tariffs eliminated (4 billion euros, or $4.4 billion, a year), the first major trade agreement struck by Mercosur since it was formed in 1991. It also sends a political message to a world rocked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with China: That the EU is still the major force behind free trade. But, if all of this is weighed against out-of-control deforestation in the Amazon, Macron is right and the agreement needs to be revised in a few specific ways that would make it work for, not against, climate goals.