The new trade agreement between the European Union and South America reached agreement after lengthy negotiations in 2019. The agreement was originally expected to be ratified and implemented within the next couple of years, but it has been facing increasing criticism from environmental groups around the world due to the mismanagement, exploitation and utter destruction of the Amazon rainforest. The rejection of the trade agreement due to these reasons was voiced in 2019 by France, Ireland and Austria.

This year the situation is not looking much better, and this has led the European Commission to officially state that the trade agreement may only be ratified with strict conditions. These conditions would be targeted mostly at the Brazilian beef industry, which is responsible for most of the deforestation in the area.

"We believe in free trade and we understand the importance of the agreement to South America, but we can not put commercial interests ahead of the well-being of the entire planet", says Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, in a press release made earlier today.

This is a drastic change in attitude from the EU, which is facing the worst economic downturn during peace time due to the Covid-19 epidemic - just as is the rest of the world. While there was some criticism towards the deal in 2019, most notably from France, the EU on the whole stood firmly by the deal. 

This time also Germany has joined the critics, with chancellor Angela Merkel saying that "as much as we want to export our products to South America, we must also stress the environmental aspects of things, which are much more important in the long term". The German car industry would be one of the main beneficiaries of the trade agreement, as the new agreement would decrease the current 35% tariff on cars considerably.

The type of conditions imposed on South America is not yet decided, but the European Commission has broadly said that it will probably be a mixture of "certification programs, land use efficiency and control programs as well as transparency and reporting schemes, amongst others, and not excluding demands on updating environmental legislation".