I just read a headline that Macron (France) and and Merz (Germany) aim to ratify quickly the free trade agreement Mercosur (EU-South America).
Yes, the Mercosur many environmentalists, unions and smallscale farmers (e.g. @ViaCampesinaEU ) protested against.
With all the accelerated developments around Trump's unstable tariff announcements, we easily forget that free trade is not automatically good thing.
It's good for the large companies, the ones that can relocate or source their goods from the cheapest corner of the world. Such as the Brazilian companies in the hands of Bolsonaro-supporters, that happily destroy the Amazonas to grow cheap GMO soy for Spanish pig farmers that pollute the groundwater with nitrates and have immigrant workers under extremely bad conditions cutting meat to be exported to China.
Free trade does not solve, and even often aggravates, the problems of workers or the environment. Until a few months ago (specifically: until a former Blackrock executive and neoliberal-conservative ideologist was elected German chancellor), the EU was even considering to establish a CO2-tariff, so that imported goods would have to price in their emissions, in order to not give them an unfair advantage against the companies producing with stricter environmental policies inside the EU[*]. Another very important regulation about human rights in the supply chain got also decaffeinated.
Now, this "the world united against Trump's tariffs"-dynamics will be used by neoliberal assholes to push their agenda of "removing barriers to free trade".
Be careful with whom you associate, these days.
* yes, simultaneously, tariffs and regulations are used by the EU to maintain neocolonial advantages and to continue the exploitation of the Global South. With these power structures in place, *every* situation will be used to favour some and hurting many.
EU
EU Seeks New Trade Allies Amid U.S. Tariff Shock
EU eyes Mercosur, UAE, India & Indonesia to reduce reliance on US & China.
