Indigenous Brazilians protest EU-Mercosur deal in European Parliament
Indigenous peoples' representatives fear that increased trade with Europe will lead to the agricultural exploitation of their territories
Representatives of Brazil's indigenous peoples travelled to Brussels to set out concerns with the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur countries at recent meetings with MEPs and European Commission officials.
A key issue is the likely expansion of agriculture and livestock farming in the lands inhabited by native peoples, which predate Portuguese colonisation in the 16th century.
If the agreement is ratified by the European Parliament and EU Member States, many agri-food products will be exported from South America to Europe at zero or reduced duties.
Considering that the EU is already the second largest trading partner of the countries of the Mercosur bloc (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay), with an exchange of more than one hundred billion Euros per year, the trade agreement will likely lead to increases in agricultural production.
In Brazil, this is expected to translate into an increase in the cultivation of soya, millet, and sugar cane as well as cattle breeding…
"… this production will be done on our heads, on our bodies, at the expense of our rivers and the forest," said another indigenous leader, Alessandra Korap, spokesperson for the Amazonian munduruku people…