Will the European market be flooded with South American foods, overshadowing our agriculture?
This is one of the fears raised by French farmers, who express their anger against the precarious situation of their profession.
In focus, the agreement between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) which, after more than 20 years of negotiations, could soon be concluded.
This free trade agreement is supposed to facilitate European exports to Latin America... but also imports, which farmers fear.
What does the agreement contain?
After endless negotiations, the discussions resulted in a text of agreement in 2019. It provides for the reduction of customs duties between the member countries of each of the two organizations, or even their gradual elimination for several sectors.
The food aspect is the one that particularly worries French farmers.
It provides for the establishment of quotas allowing Mercosur countries to export each year, with little or no customs duties, 99,000 tonnes of beef, 100,000 tonnes of poultry and even 180,000 tonnes of sugar.
In exchange, customs duties would be eliminated or reduced on several exports from the Old Continent to these South American countries: wine, chocolate, spirits, cheese... And the recognition of more than 300 protected designations of origin.
Also read: What is in the “historic” agreement between the EU and Mercosur that worries European farmers
Why are farmers opposed to it?
Farmers opposed the draft agreement in 2019: at the time, the president of the FNSEA Christiane Lambert was annoyed by
“unfair competition”
.
XXL farms, antibiotics, GMO corn, deforestation... They fear seeing the European market flooded with more competitive products because they would not need to respect European standards (environment, animal welfare, etc.) for their production.
The large mobilized farmers' unions are directly targeting draft agreements like this one with Mercosur.
The FNSEA calls for a
“clear refusal of free trade agreements”
, while the Confédération paysanne calls for an
“immediate end to negotiations”
for this type of agreement.
Does France support the agreement?
“France is very clearly opposed”
to the signing of the agreement with Mercosur, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal insisted on Friday January 26 in front of farmers.
Emmanuel Macron had already spoken out against the draft agreement in 2019, at the end of the negotiations.
“I cannot ask our farmers and our industrialists, in France and everywhere else in Europe, to make decarbonization efforts, while suddenly removing all customs duties to bring in goods that are not subject to these rules
,” he explained last December.
To be validated, the draft agreement must be voted on unanimously by EU member states.
The European Commission hoped to close the file in December, but the election of Javier Milei in Argentina - who said he wanted to leave Mercosur during the campaign - reshuffled the cards.
Finally, at the beginning of January, he said he was in favor of the negotiations being
“rapidly concluded”
, after an exchange with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a fervent supporter of the project.
In the midst of farmers' discontent on Wednesday January 24, the vice-president of the European Commission Vladis Dombrovskis said he hoped to conclude the agreement before the European elections in June.
Enough to throw a little more fuel on the fire.