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This is a bad deal for many European countries that still have a strong farming industry, and for Europeans in general too. Once again, Germany has pushed thro
by iagooar 9mo ago
This is a bad deal for many European countries that still have a strong farming industry, and for Europeans in general too.
Once again, Germany has pushed through its interests at the expense of other European nations like Poland. This time even France was against it.
What is Germany going to get? A new market for their decaying automobile industry.
What is the rest of Europe going to get? Cheap, low quality food shipped thousands of kilometers. Food produced with lower standards than food produced in the EU - so farmers in Europe now have to face unfair competition.
- raverbashing 9mo agoFarmers like to complain and always get new privileges with every protest I for once are happy they are getting a reality check for once
- iagooar 9mo agoI hope you won't get a reality check if one day there is a famine in Europe caused by outsourcing the entire farming to other continents. The very first thing any enemy force would do is a naval blockade, the rest is patience and lots of deaths.
- bildung 9mo agoFarming already is heavily subsidized in every EU country. The whole sector only exists as is precisely because of the fears you point out. And that is perfectly fine, because statistically speaking it already is a rounding error both in share of employment and share of GDP (1.2% of EU GDP), only kept alive for the exact purpose you talk about. So even if these lobby talking points would be true, and everything had to be 100% subsidized, that wouldn't be a problem.
- surgical_fire 9mo agoBuddy, we are talking about a quota that is less than 2% of the beef produced in EU. If having 1% of beef imported causes a famine, then the farming in Europe is actually pretty awful.
- dtech 9mo agoThis is an incredibly mid take. This is a boon for any European manufacturing and tech company. Not "just" German car manufacturers but especially machining and pharmaceutical companies. Farming is already incredibly subsidized in the EU, and has an outsized political capital for their importance based on historical momentum. This is also primarily bad for the beef industry, which is produced in the EU using very intensive and polluting (ammonia) methods which are also bad for animal welfare. They deserve no sympathy.
- iagooar 9mo ago> Farming is already incredibly subsidized in the EU As it should be if we don't want to wake up one fine day in the middle of a global war with no food supply because of a naval blockade and have our children starve to death.
- ivan_gammel 9mo agoThis kind of incentive should not block trade. If we need sufficient production capacity for security reasons, it’s ok to subsidize it, but the product should still compete on the market and surplus can always be donated to UN. There’s enough starving people on this planet.
- oulipo2 9mo agoRight now the current system is totally inefficient, with a lot of food waste, and a lot of ruined landscapes and soil because of pollution and intrants We need on the contrary to produce less globally, but more organically, and to reduce waste and produce locally
- ivan_gammel 9mo agoIt may be inefficient, but protectionism is never a solution and we are not yet in a state where food is abundant and accessible to everyone.
- szundi 9mo ago[dead]
- throw789 9mo agoIs it fair for Europe to colonize north america, Australia, canada, New Zealand and dumping what's produced there on other countries?
- iagooar 9mo agoEurope did not colonize the world - some European countries did. I come from Poland, a country that never colonized another country, so I do not need that moral lecturing. It is not even a matter of fairness, but of defending one owns interests.
- AdrianB1 9mo agoIs it fair to put an entire continent in a position where it does not belong? If I recall correctly Australia and New Zealand were mostly colonized by the British Empire, not by "Europe", Canada by UK and France, US by Western Europe, etc. Europe is a continent, not a country, and Europe did not colonize anything, some countries did.
- mytailorisrich 9mo agoWait and see how it goes. This deal might have real political consequences countries opposed to it, especially in France because of the opposition to the deal and by demonstrating that the country no longer has control: so this is a vindication for eurosceptic parties and embarrassing for the most pro-EU ones. This may just be short-term anger, and the whole establishment will push for it to be forgotten asap as the Presidential elections are in just a bit more than a year away.
- kledru 9mo agoIsn't it geopolitics over economics, future-building when preexisting relationships are increasingly unreliable? "paying a premium to have options in multiple possible futures"
- lukan 9mo agoAs far as I know, there is a limitation to how much food is shipped and tied to a percentage of EU farming. So no, the european market will not be flooded.
- dlisboa 9mo agoFrom a pragmatic perspective it’s just common sense. Europe cannot produce food at prices its population expects. It has no cattle herd to speak of yet consumes lots of beef. It wants for multiple commodities which don’t grow there. And as time goes on there’ll be less and less food production in Europe. And the idea that food products from SA are low quality is a very old and uninformed take. For better or worse SA has invested heavily in technology in the agricultural sector. Researches from Europe go to Brazil to learn about cattle genetic improvement and farming, not the other way around. Most of the EU economy comes from services and manufacturing. They’re ensuring a market for that larger base. Angering the small percentage of farmers to ensure food supply and manufacturing survival is the trade off.
- mantas 9mo agoThe prices partially were affected by green deal stuff and other home-grown regulations. Maybe regulations should be lowered instead of letting in cheaper produce from locations where such regulations don’t apply?
- 0dayz 9mo agoNo need to add racism to the argument. This exact thing is was said about Poland when they joined the EU, the truth was that French/Spanish/German farmers didn't want to give up non specialized farming, and the same argument has been made and was a primary reason why Ukraine is not in the EU. Plus it's odd that specifically this deal is so bad, but deals with importing Asian grown food via trade deal is fine.
- surgical_fire 9mo agoFunny, I think this deal was better for the EU than for Mercosur. Still a net positive for both sides though. That European farmers are crying over wanting more protectionism is nothing new. The quotas for food imports to EU are dismal, and the food needs to adhere to EU standards anyway. But even that is being cried about as "unfair competition".