“Poland will not accept the free trade agreement between the EU and the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) in its current form,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said. The opposition to the agreement had been expressed earlier by the Ministry of Agriculture, agricultural NGOs and individual farmers.

At a cabinet meeting the government planned to prepare a resolution on the free trade deal between the European Union and the Mercosur bloc, comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay.

Before the meeting, the Prime Minister said the project had been proposed by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Krzysztof Paszyk, but – as the matter largely concerns agriculture – he had also discussed it with the Deputy Prime Minister, the head of the PSL, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, and the Minister of Agriculture, Czesław Siekierski. 

“That was the recommendation of the minister, the prime ministers, that we adopt today a resolution of the Council of Ministers on our position,” Tusk said.

‘The Council of Ministers expresses its opposition to the results so far of the negotiations with Mercosur in the area of agriculture, in particular to the increase of the tariff quotas for poultry meat at the last stage of the exchange of tariff offers,’ Tusk said quoting the government documents.

Tusk added that the statement was a political message that Poland would not accept the EU-Mercosur agreement in its current form.

“We are not alone, many member states have a similar opinion,” said Tusk.

The EU-Mercosur free trade agreement has been negotiated for more than 20 years, reaching its most important political consensus in 2019. However, as the Polish Agriculture Ministry informs, the final draft of the agreement was not presented to the EU member states. 

Source: PAP

Photo: X donaldtusk

Tomasz Modrzejewski