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5.3 The EU-MERCOSUR association agreement: The deregulation of national<br />
markets through the regulation of international markets?<br />
The EU and MERCOSUR, after the “failure” of Cancún, have repeatedly emphasized<br />
their interest in finalizing an “Interregional Association Agreement”. A conclusion<br />
to this agreement – with the “ambitious and innovative provisions” of the so-called<br />
“fourth generation” – will now, after the EU-Mexico and EU-Chile agreements, be attempted<br />
within the EU-MERCOSUR context in the course of the coming months.<br />
Following the last EU-MERCOSUR ministerial meeting in Brussels on November<br />
12, 2003 the negotiation plan of the coming sessions of the bi-regional negotiation<br />
committee (BNC) was tightened, so that the treaty will be prepared for the final consultations<br />
at the next meeting of the heads of state of Latin America, the Caribbean<br />
and Europe from May 28-29 at Guadalajara, Mexico, and could be signed, according<br />
to the plan, in October 2004.<br />
The issue of investment will play a central role here, which will have to be<br />
matched by the pretensions of the European Commission, which untiringly praises<br />
the compatibility of trade and investment with development. But so far the focus of<br />
the EU-MERCOSUR negotiation process seems to have favored trade and investment,<br />
so that the warning of the assessment expressed by civil society already in<br />
2002 continues to be valid:<br />
“It is time to rethink the process of international investment agreements thoroughly.<br />
In particular the relationship between bilateral investment agreements<br />
and multilateral or interregional agreements needs to be articulated much<br />
more carefully and explicitly than has happened to date. That does not appear<br />
to be happening within the EU/MERCOSUR process.” 331<br />
It not only has to be feared that, within the framework of the broad free trade<br />
agenda between the EU and MERCOSUR questions of development will become<br />
secondary just like the verbal avowals for human rights, but also that national scope<br />
of decision making with respect to development will be subjected to the dictum of<br />
profit and efficiency by means of the<br />
a) Proposed free trade agreement.<br />
b) Bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with their far-reaching investors’ rights, which<br />
have already been ratified or are near to ratification.<br />
331 Konrad von Moltke (International Institute for Sustainable Development): European Union / MERCOSUR<br />
Negotiations. The Environment and Sustainable Development Dimension, edited by: WWF European Policy Office,<br />
Belgium & WWF Brazil, April 2002, p. 23.<br />
119