President Emmanuel Macron
buried the Mercosur agreement,
which discusses the region with the European Union. During his three-day trip to Brazil, the French president called for burying that old agreement and “
building another
, commercial one that takes into account biodiversity.”
“The Mercosur agreement
is a very bad one
. There is nothing
in this agreement
that takes biodiversity
and climate into account. End the Mercosur of 20 years ago. Let's build a new agreement. A trade agreement, which is responsible from a development point of view, climate and biodiversity,” said Macron at the
São Paulo Economic Forum
, on his tour to Brazil and French Guyana.
“A new generation agreement “with mirror clauses”, which will facilitate access to the European market for its companies and which will be more demanding on both sides with our farmers, our industrialists,” he stated.
The French president has expressed on more than one occasion his opposition to this trade agreement, whose rules
are not, in his opinion, "homogeneous" with European ones.
Lula Da Silva and Macron participate in the launching ceremony of the Tonero submarine, in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: EFE
In January 2024, France, faced with the fury of the agricultural sector mobilized even on the Champs Elysées, reaffirmed
“its firmest opposition to the signing of the free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur
. ”
The European Commission, however, affirmed its desire to continue negotiations. The number of opposing countries is reducing but
France is firmly opposed.
Mercosur and agreement with Canada
Opposition to Mercosur coincides
with support for a trade agreement with Canada
, which the French Senate rejected last week.
Guest on the
Good Morning Business
program , Agnès Pannier-Runacher, minister delegate of the ministry of agriculture, discussed free trade agreements between the European Union and Latin America, as well as with Canada, this Thursday.
Panier denounced "a demagogue attitude" in the upper house of Parliament.
"All the experts agree that it is a very good agreement, which is beneficial for the industry," he insisted on the program. “Also, we know what this agreement is because it has been in place for 7 years, so it is not like we are jumping into the unknown.”
French farmers march against Mercosur in an image from February. Photo: EFE
"We have comments that we see benefit our agriculture, including the meat sector. We are going to rework the impact study to show parliamentarians that it is a good agreement," he said.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher also spoke about the treaty with the Southern Cone, hoping that the next European Commission "will be in a position to reopen this file and reach a good agreement."
"We need above all
free trade and agriculture
. Agriculture exports two thirds of the calories produced in France," he stressed.
"If there is no free trade,
viticulture today finds no way out and would collapse
. This is valid for cereals and other productions," he said.
For her, "the challenge is to achieve
balanced agreements
that take into account the collapse of biodiversity, climate change and establish reciprocal environmental clauses."
"We must adapt to environmental requirements"
"Do you want to import to Europe?
We must adapt to
Europe's environmental demands and we ourselves will export goods with a high environmental value," he added. “That is why Mercosur, which is an agreement that dates back 20 years,
does not adapt to current conditions
," he explained.
According to Greenpeace, this free trade agreement “would considerably increase pressure on these already fragile ecosystems, since one of the main objectives of the agreement is to reduce customs tariffs on beef imports (per 99,000 tons).”
Can France block the agreement?
Can France block the EU-Mercosur agreement? This is one of the main points of tension in the farmers' dispute, the Trade Agreement between the European Union and the MERCOSUR countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay), under negotiation since 1999.
It could cause, according to them, a distortion of competition. France makes it known that it is firmly opposed to this.
Under pressure, the European Commission admits that "currently... the conditions for concluding the negotiations are not met."
Elvire Fabry, senior researcher in trade geopolitics at the Jacques Delors Institute, gave her point of view on whether this agreement, rejected by France but accepted and promoted by other European countries, can be blocked.
“
In principle no
, because on this issue
it is a qualified majority vote
and some European countries are pushing for this agreement to occur:
Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the Scandinavian countries
, etc. However,
France has a political weight that allows it to influence
this issue. Furthermore, the European Commission's announcement to suspend negotiations is the result of pressure from Paris,” he explained.
“And it is not the first time: in 2019 an agreement was reached on the EU-Mercosur file. But even before ratification began, France opposed it. We were under the presidency of Bolsonaro in Brazil and France asked for more guarantees
regarding the risks of deforestation
. Even then, France's opinion had not been evaded and we had tried to find ground for negotiation,” said the researcher.
The furious French peasants
The accusation from French producers is that they will flood the country
with cheap Brazilian or Argentine meat.
Elvire Fabry believes that “once again, things must be put into perspective: at the moment, beef from Mercosur only represents
2.5% of annual beef consumption in the European Union
.” Of course, we will reduce customs duties for a maximum quota of imported tons (which are already imported and not those that would be added to current imports), but we
are not going to eliminate them for sensitive sectors. They should also know that so-called
“safeguard measures”
exist in all trade agreements .
If we notice an unforeseen spike in imports, there is the possibility of suspending these preferential conditions” she explained.
According to Fabry, the demands of European farmers refer “to the fact of having to
respect environmental commitments
, which cannot be imposed directly on the Mercosur countries. What is possible with a small country like New Zealand cannot be possible with a group as important as Mercosur. In this case, the solution can be found at the European level, providing more support to our farmers in their environmental transition” he suggested.