The EU-Mercosur agreement: a win-win for markets at the detriment of Amazon

The Miami-Florida Jean Monnet Center of Excellence, in collaboration with the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center, is organizing a discussion with scholar activist Manuela Picq on the EU-Mercosur agreement.

The EU-Mercosur agreement: a win-win for markets at the detriment of Amazonia?

The EU and Mercosur are celebrating their latest trade agreement as a win-win, but indigenous and climate activists see it as a major threat against biodiversity with irreversible risks to Amazonia and the future of the planet.

The agreement is being celebrated for lowering trade barriers and stabilizing rules for trade and investment. The EU will increase imports of beef and other agricultural commodities in exchange for more exports of manufactured goods such as cars. While the agreement claims to operate under a value-based trade agenda that protects labor rights and the environment, Latin American nature defenders warn that it will expand the agribusiness frontier in Amazonia, driving deforestation, land grab, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss. Indigenous and nature defenders, who were never consulted about the deal, reject it for accelerating climate collapse and deepening socio-economic inequalities through extractive regimes of dispossession.

Guest speaker

Manuela Picq, Ph.D
Senior Lecturer in the Departments of Political Science and Sexuality
Women's and Gender Studies
Amherst College

About the speaker

Manuela Picq, a French-Brazilian UM alumni from the School of International Studies, is Senior Lecturer in Political Science and Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies at Amherst College (USA). She is the author of scholarly books and articles, including Savages and Citizens: How Indigeneity Shapes the States (University of Arizona Press 2024) and Vernacular Sovereignties: Indigenous Women Challenging World Politics (University of Arizona Press 2018). She is Editor of Public Humanities and contributes to international media outlets. Her work at the intersection of scholarship, journalism, and activism led her to be nominated in a New Generation of Public Intellectuals (2018) and featured in the FemiList 100 (2021) and to receive the 2024 Outstanding Scholar Activist Award by the International Studies Association.

Discussants:
Markus Thiel, Ph.D
Professor, Politics & International Relations, FIU
Director, Miami-Florida Jean Monnet Center of Excellence

Anthony Pereira, PhD
Professor, Politics & International Relations, FIU
Director, Kimberley Green Latin American and Caribbean Center

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Sponsor:

Miami-Florida Jean Monnet Center of Excellence

Co-sponsors:

- Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center

- The Global Indigenous Forum

- Department of Politics & International Relations

- The European & Eurasian Studies Program

Host or Publisher Miami-Florida Jean Monnet European Union Center of Excellence