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European agricultural protectionism now cares about ecology

2021-08-21T09:57:35.641Z


The European Common Agricultural Policy is the most subsidized protectionist system in the history of world capitalism.


Jorge Castro

08/21/2021 5:46 AM

  • Clarín.com

  • Rural

Updated 08/21/2021 5:46 AM

The 3 organs of the European Union (EU) government system have agreed on a New Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the period 2023/2027 to which 387,000 million euros (US $ 420,000 million) will be allocated.

The CAP is 67 years old, and it is

the most subsidized protectionist system in the history of world capitalism

.

It is based on the premise that European agriculture is inseparable from this gigantic structure of protection and subsidy, whose objective is only one: to prevent Europe from competing with

the large agri-food production of emerging countries

, especially those of South America, Brazil. and Argentina in 1st.

place.

The novelty of the new CAP is that it

allocates 25% of its budget to direct payments linked to climate change

, such as organic agriculture, agro-ecology, decarbonizing agricultural practices, etc.

Producers must also dedicate at least 3% of their arable land to biodiversity and the development of non-productive elements, thus receiving benefits that can be more than double the subsidies obtained through direct payments.

It must be borne in mind that the Brussels government system sets the objectives of the CAP as conditionalities, which are essentially recommendations, but then their execution is in the hands of the national governments, who formulate it through "Strategic Plans" .

This means that a central aspect of the CAP is the definition of national actors, referring to the size of the business and the economic volume of the producers of the 27 countries of the European Union (EU).

In France, for example, which is the nucleus and historical source of agricultural protectionism on the Continent, and the authentic creator of the CAP with the 5th.

In the De Gaulle republic,

the bulk of subsidies are received by large productive units

, while in Poland, the other major European agricultural producer, they are received by small producers, who are by definition those with the lowest productivity.

The latter are the ones that obtain the bulk of agricultural subsidies from the CAP;

and that is why they oppose the establishment of a mandatory 35% quota to combat climate change, because they consider that they imply a reduction in direct benefits, which are the only ones that interest them.

In France, on the other hand, the issue has been resolved, because ultimately the large agricultural businesses are the beneficiaries of the entire subsidy structure, whether "green" or direct, without "ecological" mediations of any kind.

Even the fruit and vegetable sector will receive an increase of 5 points in the funds allocated to the defense of the Environment, taking them from the current 10% to 15%.

European agriculture is responsible for only 15% of the Union's carbon dioxide (CO2) emission;

and the objective of the new CAP is to accentuate its convergence with the rest of the region's economy, as regards climate change in the 2023/2027 period.

Direct subsidies are calculated per hectare, which means that the larger the productive unit, the greater the subsidies it receives.

Furthermore, and this is an essential point to underline,

European producers receive more than 40% of their income in the form of subsidies from the CAP

.

This is what makes EU producers formidable rentiers who depend directly on state coffers, without the need to compete and win new markets.

This system is the opposite of capitalism

: it is a highly bureaucratized regime that ensures non-competition;

and it makes these rentiers, who are a nullity in competitive and productivity terms, at the same time a political power due to their extraordinary “lobbying” capacity, which is the deep vocation of every rentier who values ​​himself.

The whole of the European system is hyper-regulated (to the extreme of ridicule) and super-subsidized, which structurally eliminates its ability to compete in global terms.

The great European thinker Max Weber had already warned that the main adversary of capitalism is its domination by the bureaucratic class, and above all by its hyper-regulatory and extraordinarily suffocating spirit;

and that, on the contrary, the core of capitalism is the entrepreneur, and his passion to undertake, innovate, and invest (what Keynes called "animal spirits").

Look also

Agroindustrial know-how, another Argentine product with export potential

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Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-08-21

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