Paphos banana farmers ‘must be protected’ after EU-Mercosur deal

Banana farmers in the Paphos district “must be protected” when the recently agreed trade deal between the European Union and South American trade bloc Mercosur comes into force, Nikolas Theodosiou, deputy mayor of the Paphos district village of Kissonerga said on Tuesday.

“It must be ensured that the local producers are protected when the deal enters effect, so that they are not negatively affected by competition and cheaper products being imported from Latin America,” he said.

He added that in many cases, including with bananas, “the products coming in are often much cheaper than what local producers can afford to produce”, and as such, he said, without adequate protection, “local producers could be placed in a very difficult situation”.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to travel to Paraguay on Saturday to sign the deal, which will create the world’s largest free trade area and cover more than 700 million people.

The deal will gradually eliminate tariffs on over 90 per cent of bilateral trade between the two blocs, with some industries inside Europe seeing this as a victory. At present, Mercosur places tariffs of up to 35 per cent on car parts and alcoholic drinks, for example.

However, in return, the EU has granted concessions in the agricultural sector, and with both Argentina and Brazil being global agricultural heavyweights, European farmers now fear being undercut.

Those fears have been somewhat allayed by recent developments, with safeguard clauses allowing the EU to suspend tariff-free imports on some products if European producers find themselves under undue pressure.

The European Council approved the deal last Friday, though Austria, France, Hungary, Ireland and Poland all voted against the deal and Belgium abstained. Italy, having previously expressed opposition to the deal, voted in its favour.

After the vote, President Nikos Christodoulides described the deal’s approval as a “historic milestone”.

“Today’s council decision … marks a historic milestone. A union open to the world. With an open, robust trade policy,” he said.

Meanwhile, Trade Minister Michael Damianos said that “in a time of increasing global uncertainty, it is essential to strengthen our political cooperation, deepen our economic ties and uphold our shared commitment to sustainable development”.

Tuesday saw more than 350 tractors descend on Paris with farmers expressing distaste at the deal, while in Ireland, local media estimated that 20,000 people took to the streets of the town of Athlone in County Westmeath to demonstrate their opposition to it.

EU law allows the deal to be provisionally implemented without a vote in the European Parliament, though the bloc’s director-general for trade Sabine Weyland has, according to news website Euractiv, reassured MEPs that the deal will not necessarily be automatically implemented after Saturday.

MEPs will likely vote on the deal in February or March.

Despite these reassurances, many in the Cypriot agricultural sector remain unconvinced, with Akel MP Yiannakis Gavriel having warned that the deal “will be disastrous for all of Europe, especially for us in Cyprus, which is a small island”.