Minister of Agriculture István Nagy of Hungary has uploaded a short video to YouTube, in which he is urging other EU Member States to oppose the proposed Mercosur free trade agreement.

In his video, he argues that under the agreement, agricultural products from South American nations would flood the European market. The quotas for crops coming in from Ukraine have already been increased, he added, so additional cheap food product supplies of unvetted quality would further hurt the farmers of Europe.

‘This is especially dangerous to Hungary because of the Mercosur countries, Brazil and Argentina are the world’s first and second, respectively, biggest producers of gene-modified agricultural products. They also have Uruguay and Paraguay, which are also among the ten largest producers,’ Minister Nagy cautioned.

According to the Hungarian business news site Világgazdaság, the Minister also criticized the Brussels leadership for cutting funding for European farmers in their next proposed seven-year budget. As per the planned budget, farmers could face subsidy cuts of up to 20 per cent. In addition, by creating a single fund, the Brussels body would effectively eliminate the independent common agricultural policy—something unprecedented in the EU’s more than 60-year history, VG.hu writes.

‘Food products are serious business,’ Minister Nagy warned again.

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