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Find the Spanish version here, the Portuguese here and German here

We firmly believe that the countries of the MERCOSUR and the EU need to improve and transform their relationship. In the last three years social movements, civil society organisations, trade unions, and farmers associations on both sides of the Atlantic have fought successfully together to stop the EU-Mercosur trade agreement from being ratified. The proposed agreement would serve primarily corporate interests at the expense of planetary boundaries, Indigenous people, family farmers, workers and animal welfare, and drive deindustrialisation and untenable social inequalities. This is nothing you can plaster over with some additional instruments. At the same time, our current economic relationship is already based on an asymmetric power relation and unequal terms of trade shaped by a history of colonialism with devastating effects on people, animals and the planet.

We, the undersigned organisations, thus believe that the EU-Mercosur agreement must be stopped and it is time to ground our common future on the principles of solidarity, equality, cooperation, sustainability and democracy. Our goal is not more unrestrained and uncontrolled trade and profits for the few but a good life for everyone. Trade can help us in the transition towards sustainable societies and methods of production but only if we base it on new principles. Negotiations concerning political, economic and sustainable trade relationships between our two regions must be based on these principles.

Solidarity

Our future relationship must not be based on exploitation but on solidarity. Therefore, we must put human rights, workers, Indigenous people, family farmers and animal welfare, protecting biodiversity and the climate front and centre. Those rights must be guaranteed universally, their protection must take precedence over any trade or business interests, and must be enforceable under international human rights law, not trade and investment law. We cannot allow transnational corporations any longer to profit from economic asymmetries and unequal rights.

Shaping our future with solidarity also means acknowledging and redressing the grossly unfair relationship and history of colonialism and exploitation that stems from it. Therefore, we must actively seek to decolonize our relations. This starts by acknowledging and taking responsibility for the historical social, ecological, financial and climate debt that Europe owes to the people from Mercosur countries, paying back those debts, including through public funding by the EU for Mercosur people’s development projects for just and sustainable societies, and in terms of trade, by granting comprehensive horizontal Special and Differential Treatment to Mercosur countries, industries and producers.

Equality

Trade and investment policies have so far contributed to increasing inequalities, between regions, and between people and reinforcing power relations like patriarchy, racism and neocolonialism profiting multinational corporations and big landowners. Future cooperation must change course and contribute to increasing equality. This starts by acknowledging indigenous rights, and supporting indigenous and rural communities, including Afro- descendant Quilombolas, landless and small-scale family farmers both in Europe and the Mercosur, riverine (Ribeirinhos) and small scale-fishing communities in maintaining their lands and culture and avoiding trading any product that can threaten it.

It further means overcoming economic models which are based on the appropriation of unpaid and underpaid reproductive labour on both sides of the Atlantic as well the discrimination of women in the labour market by transnational corporations thereby reinforcing patriarchal structures. Instead, future cooperation should foster public and community approaches to care. Therefore care work and public services provided by the State as a human right on a non for profit basis must be rooted locally and respected internationally.

Cooperation

Cooperation, not competition should be the principle we base our relationship on. Only huge corporations win when you pit workers and farmers against each other.

The EU and Mercosur should be able to protect peasant and family farmers against unfair competition and the Mercosur should be able to protect domestic industries that provide high- quality jobs.

Cooperation means that we should not seek to increase trade between our societies as a goal in itself but should primarily improve commercial partnerships of products that are produced sustainably and are not easily available on the other side.

Future cooperation must include the preferential transfer of technology and knowledge, free from corporate-controlled intellectual property rights, to support the necessary social and technological transformation of our economies by learning from each other.

Sustainability

Future cooperation must contribute to the transition towards sustainable societies and methods of production, be based on the principles of food sovereignty, agroecology, care and ensure reciprocity in high-quality standards across the board once decolonization measures have been taken by the EU and Special and Differential Treatment has been enacted.

Sustainability is not something you add at the end of an agreement in a separate non- enforceable chapter but a fundamental cross-cutting issue. Therefore, we should aim to trade only products that are not harmful to the planet, animals and people. This means stopping the trade of agricultural products from monocultures like soy and sugarcane and intensive animal farming which fuels deforestation, biodiversity loss and the spread of zoonoses. Instead, we should trade sustainable products, favouring local and domestic products when possible. It also means to stop the export of harmful and dangerous products such as forbidden pesticides from Europe to the Mercosur. Sustainable trade also implies reducing emissions from transport. Our relationship can’t be based on the extraction of resources low on the valuechain for the benefit of European economies. People in the Mercosur need the right to say no to harmful extractivist practices and demand a fair price for their resources. Our trade relationship must focus on sustainable methods of production, and on products not available either in the EU or the Mercosur.

Democracy

Finally, the relationship between the people of Mercosur and the EU cannot be decided behind closed doors. Any future cooperation must be based on the mentioned principles in a democratic, participatory and transparent way. Such a process must put the people most affected front and centre. Indigenous people, small scale peasant and family farmers, women and men, workers and civil society need to lead such a process, in order to guarantee that their interests and planetary boundaries are respected.  The rights of Indigenous peoples, peasants, workers and women must be respected, and the people from both regions must have the right to say NO to any agreement that does not serve their legitimate interests and aspirations for democratic, sustainable and just societies.

Moreover, any future cooperation must safeguard the broadest possible policy space for governments to be able to fulfil their public interest mandates as a precondition for democracy and no trade and investment measures should be enacted that can threaten that policy space. Our common future depends on more robust democracies and people’s power, not stronger and further entrenched vested interests and corporate power.

 

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    1.     Plataforma América Latina mejor sin TLC

    Regional

     

    2.     Climate Action Network Europe

    Europe

     

    3.     European Coordination Via Campesina

    Europe

     

    4.     WeMove Europe 

    Europe 

     

    5.     Friends of the Earth International

    Global

     

    6.     Greenpeace

    Global

     

    7.     Ekō

    Global

     

    8.     Seattle to Brussels Network

    Europe

     

    9.     Le Mouvement de la Paix

    France

     

    10.  Cgt

    France

     

    11.  Les Amis du Monde diplomatique

    France

     

    12.  ZEA

    France

     

    13.  France Amérique Latine-FAL 

    France

     

    14.  Groupe Non-Violent LOUIS LECOIN 

    France

     

    15.  Alofa Tuvalu

    France

     

    16.  Emmaüs International

    France

     

    17.  Union syndicale Solidaires

    France

     

    18.  MRAP

    France

     

    19.  CCFD Terre Solidaire 

    France

     

    20.  Notre Affaire À Tous 

    France

     

    21.  Foodwatch 

    France

     

    22.  Union syndicale Solidaires

    France

     

    23.  Fédération Artisans du Monde

    France 

     

    24.  Autres Brésils

    France

     

    25.  Réseau Européen pour la Démocratie au Brésil (RED.Br)

    France

     

    26.  Comité Pauvreté et Politique

    France

     

    27.  Amis de la Terre France / Friends of the Earth France

    France

     

    28.  LDH

    France

     

    29.  ActionAid France

    France

     

    30.  Action Non-Violente COP21

    France

     

    31.  Alternatiba

    France

     

    32.  BLOOM Association

    France

     

    33.  Copernic 

    France 

     

    34.  Générations Futures

    France

     

    35.  France Nature Environnement

    France

     

    36.  reseau roosevelt du travail pour tous

    france

     

    37.  FSU

    France

     

    38.  CADTM France

    France

     

    39.  Committee in Solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas (CSIA-Nitassinan)

    France

     

    40.  Aitec

    France

     

    41.  Confédération paysanne nationale 

    France

     

    42.  Canopée

    France

     

    43.  Association Franco-Brésilienne pour les Peuples – AFBP

    France

     

    44.  LIGUE DES DROITS DE L’HOMME CORSICA

    France

     

    45.  EDA – association Environnement Développement Alternatif Lille

    France

     

    46.  medicusmundi

    España

     

    47.  UPO 

    Spain

     

    48.  Trawunche Madrid (Coordinación de Apoyo al Pueblo Mapuche)

    España

     

    49.  Sevilla no al TTIP

    Sevilla- Spain

     

    50.  CGT (Confederación General del Trabajo)

    España

     

    51.  CONFEDERACION INTERSINDICAL

    ESPAÑA

     

    52.  Asamblea Plaza de los pueblos 

    España 

     

    53.  La Coordinadora de Organizaciones para el Desarrollo

    Spain

     

    54.  Asociación Cultural Brasileña Maloka

    España

     

    55.  UGT

    España

     

    56.  Permacultura ATTA

    España

     

    57.  Red Ecofeminista 

    España

     

    58.  Entrepueblos/Entrepobles/Entrepobos/Herriarte

    Spain

     

    59.  Campanya Catalunya No als tractats de comerç i inversió

    España

     

    60.  Campaña estatal No a los Tratados de Comercio e Inversión

    Spain

     

    61.  Ecologistas en Acción

    Spain

     

    62.  Salva la Selva

    España

     

    63.  ECOAR)))

    Spain

     

    64.  Argentinos en España, UCM y ATTAC

    ESPAÑA

     

    65.  FSC-CCOO

    Spain

     

    66.  Colectivo Agar, Espacio de investigacion y Encuentro desde la diversidad

    España

     

    67.  Foro Pacifista Internacionalista de Ciudad Real

    Spain

     

    68.  ALBA

    España

     

    69.  OMAL

    EStado español

     

    70.  Amigos de la Tierra

    España

     

    71.  Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft (AbL)

    Germany

     

    72.  Bündnis für gerechten Welthandel München

    Deutschland

     

    73.  Bündnis gerechter Welthandel Mannheim

    Deutschland

     

    74.  ÖDP

    Deutschland

     

    75.  KAB Deutschlands

    Germany

     

    76.  Stop-TTIP Kreis Miltenberg

    Deutschland

     

    77.  Christ*innen für den Sozialismus

    Deutschland

     

    78.  Kölner Bündnis für gerechten Welthandel

    Germany

     

    79.  Jugend im Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland e.V. (BUNDjugend)

    Germany

     

    80.  Heidelberger Bündnis für gerechten Welthandel

    Germany

     

    81.  Pax Christi München

    Germany

     

    82.  BUND Hameln-Pyrmont 

    Germany

     

    83.  Wuppertaler Aktionsbündnis Gerechter Welthandel

    Deutschland

     

    84.  Ttip-nein-danke.de Miltenberg

    Deutschland

     

    85.  Attac Germany

    Germany

     

    86.  Heidelberger Bündnis für einen gerechten Welthandel

    Germany

     

    87.  KoBra Kooperation Brasilien e.V.

    Germany

     

    88.  Bürgerinitiative “aufRECHT:FREIdenken Mittelbaden”

    Deutschland, Baden-Württemberg

     

    89.  Oficina Ecuménica por la Paz y la Justicia

    Alemania

     

    90.  Netzwerk gerechter Welthandel

    Germany

     

    91.  Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft Baden-Württemberg

    Germany

     

    92.  Gerechter Welthandel

    Germany

     

    93.  NaturFreunde Deutschlands

    Deutschland

     

    94.  Konstanzer Bündnis für gerechten Welthandel 

    Germany / Deutschland

     

    95.  POEMA – Armut u. Umwelt in Amazonien

    Deutschland

     

    96.  Coordination gegen BAYER-Gefahren

    Deutschland

     

    97.  Berliner Wassertisch

    Germany

     

    98.  FDCL-Center for Research and Documentation Chile-Latin America

    Germany

     

    99.  Stop-TTIP Kreis Miltenberg

    Deutschland

     

    100.                   ILA Informationsstelle Lateinamerika e.V. Bonn

    Germany

     

    101.                   Rettet den Regenwald

    Germany

     

    102.                   POEMA e.V.

    Deutschland

     

    103.                   Informationsstelle Peru

    Germany

     

    104.                   Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND e.V)

    Germany

     

    105.                   NABU e. V.

    Deutschland

     

    106.                   PowerShift

    Germany

     

    107.                   Parents for Future Germany

    Germany

     

    108.                   FUGEA

    Belgium

     

    109.                   Mouvement d’Action Paysanne

    Belgium

     

    110.                   Fern

    Belgium

     

    111.                   Eurogroup for Animals

    Belgium

     

    112.                   Corporate Europe Observatory

    Belgium

     

    113.                   Entraide & Fraternité

    Belgique 

     

    114.                   Espirito Mundo

    Belgium

     

    115.                   CNCD-11.11.11

    Belgium

     

    116.                   Rise for Climate Belgium 

    Belgique

     

    117.                   Institute of Socioeconomic Studies – Inesc

    Brasil

     

    118.                   FASE – Solidariedade e Educação

    Brazil

     

    119.                   Instituto Terramar

    Brasil

     

    120.                   Articulação Agro é Fogo 

    Brasil 

     

    121.                   Amigos da Terra Brasil

    Brasil

     

    122.                   MST 

    Brasil

     

    123.                   Coalizão Negra por Direitos

    Brasil

     

    124.                   Global Aktion

    Danmark

     

    125.                   Animal Protection Denmark 

    Denmark 

     

    126.                   Global Aktion

    Denmark

     

    127.                   NOAH Friends of the Earth Denmark

    Denmark

     

    128.                   Parents For Future Wien 

    Österreich

     

    129.                   GLOBAL 2000 – Friends of the Earth Austria

    Austria

     

    130.                   Anders Handeln

    Austria

     

    131.                   Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund/Austrian Trade Union

    Österreich

     

    132.                   Attac Austria

    Austria

     

    133.                   Coordination office of the Austrian Bishop`s Conference

    Austria

     

    134.                   Welthaus Graz

    Austria 

     

    135.                   Welthaus Diözese Graz-Seckau

    Austria

     

    136.                   DKA Austria

    Austria

     

    137.                   Climate Save Portugal

    Portugal 

     

    138.                   TROCA – Plataforma por um Comércio Internacional Justo

    Portugal

     

    139.                   GAIA – Grupo de Accao e Intervencao Ambiental

    Portugal

     

    140.                   Academia Cidadã

    Portugal

     

    141.                   Climáximo

    Portugal

     

    142.                   Palombar – Associação de Conservação da Natureza e do Património Rural

    Portugal

     

    143.                   Ecomood Portugal

    Portugal

     

    144.                   CIDAC – Centro de Intervenção para o Desenvolvimento Amílcar Cabral

    Portugal

     

    145.                   Campo Aberto – associação de defesa do ambiente

    Portugal

     

    146.                   ATBG

    Portugal

     

    147.                   Opus Diversidades

    Portugal

     

    148.                   ZERO – associação sistema terrestre sustentável

    Portugal

     

    149.                   Stop TTIP Italy

    Italy

     

    150.                   Fairwatch

    Italia

     

    151.                   Transnational Institute (TNI)

    Netherlands

     

    152.                   WILPF NL

    Nederland

     

    153.                   FNV

    Netherlands

     

    154.                   Handel Anders!

    Netherlands

     

    155.                   Agriculture coalition for Just Trade

    Netherlands 

     

    156.                   SOMO

    Netherlands

     

    157.                   Both ENDS

    Netherlands

     

    158.                   Milieudefensie – Friends of the Earth Netherlands

    Netherlands

     

    159.                   Working group Food Justice 

    Netherlands 

     

    160.                   Platform Aarde Boer Consument 

    Netherlands 

     

    161.                   Centro de Estudios Heñói

    Paraguay

     

    162.                   SOBREVIVENCIA, Amigos de la Tierra Paraguay

    Paraguay

     

    163.                   ATTAC Hungary

    Hungary

     

    164.                   Clean Air Action Group

    Hungary

     

    165.                   FUNDACION SOLON

    Bolivia

     

    166.                   ASTM

    Luxembourg

     

    167.                   Plataforma de Formación Militante

    Argentina

     

    168.                   Fresh Eyes

    United Kingdom

     

    169.                   Groupe d’Action Francophone pour l’Environnement GAFE Haïti

    Haïti

     

    170.                   COECOCEIBA-Amigos de la Tierra CR

    Costa Rica

     

    171.                   UDAPT

    Ecuador

     

    172.                   CESTA AT El Salvador

    El Salvador, CA

     

    173.                   REDES-AT (FoE) Uruguay

    Uruguay

     

    174.                   Attac Norway

    Norway

     

    175.                   Naturefriends Greece

    Greece

     

    176.                   SEED: Strategies for Ethical and Environmental Development, Inc.

    United States

     

    177.                   Zaustavimo TTIP

    Hrvatska

     

    178.                   Volunteers Welfare for Community Based Care of Zambia (VOWAZA)

    Zambia

     

    179.                   African Network of Young Researchers

    Côte d’Ivoire

     

    180.                   Fundacja Strefa Zieleni

    Poland