Globalization, capitalism and agricultural food trade between the Mercosur and the European Union

Abstract

The trend towards worldwide commercial liberalization and the increasing economic globalization, within the framework created by the needs of the capitalist mode of production, are the main factors in the farming and food trade relationships between the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) and the European Union (EU). It is precisely the agricultural sphere that is creating more controversy in the current negociations towards an International Framework Agreement for Commercial and Economic Cooperation between the two regional institutions. In these relationships there is a clear contradiction, which responds to the typical center-periphery scheme, whereby MERCOSUR plays the traditional dependent role. However, there is a further class antagonism which will be greatly influential upon the evolution of agriculture and rural spaces in the EU and MERCOSUR, for the elimination of customs barriers will be perjudicial to EU farmers and to the farming sector in the weaker European countries, whereas it will benefit mostly the interest of finance and industry elites. Most probably, those who will profit from Mercosur will be mainly large farming owners and trade operators, while the majority of farmers and members of society will be excluded from the potential advantages of trade liberalization.