Mr Johnson has refused to join French president Emmanuel Macron and Irish premier Leo Varadkar in
threatening to block a South American trade deal if Mr Bolsonaro fails to live up to his commitments to
protect the environment.
Stressing his unwillingness to disrupt trade at a time when fears of a global showdown are rising, the PM
said that some leaders at the G7 Summit in Biarritz were using the catastrophic wildfires in the Amazon as
an “excuse” to interfere with free trade.
But Mr Gardiner warned that a deal with Mr Bolsonaro might mean UK consumers eating beef from cows
reared in the very areas currently being cleared of their ancient forest by fire.
He pointed to the recent visit to Brazil by international trade minister Conor Burns, who posed for pictures
drinking champagne with Brazilian minister Marcos Troyjo, who has explicitly backed Mr Bolsonaro’s
policy of deforestation. Reports by environmental groups have shown links between beef imported from
Brazil and sold in UK supermarkets and deforestation in the Amazon.
The Amazon is a key carbon sink for the world’s carbon emissions and its destruction has a major impact on
the global effort to tackle climate change. In addition the Amazon is home to an estimated 10 per cent of the
world’s species.
Mr Gardiner said: “While the Amazon rainforest burns to clear space for cattle and crops, the Conservative
government is cosying up to Brazil’s far-right president Bolsonaro.
“Any post-Brexit trade deal with Brazil must guarantee that the UK is not further contributing to the
destruction of the Amazon. We cannot risk our planet to buy cheap beef. The Amazon is our planet’s great
shield against climate change and we are wilfully destroying it. The homes of indigenous people and
millions of plant and animal species are under threat.
“Boris Johnson’s vision for Britain after No Deal Brexit seems to be that we sell off the NHS to Trump’s
America, trash the Amazon with a deal with Mr Bolsonaro and fuel war by selling arms to the Saudi
dictatorship.”