(Bloomberg) -- France’s powerful farming unions are taking to the streets again to seek more government support and rally against a European Union free trade deal with Latin American producers seen allowing in cheaper goods.
A few dozen tractors rolled along a stretch of the highway near Vélizy-Villacoublay, south of Paris, others moved along bridges and roads in other regions, according to France Inter radio. The farmers, who’ve threatened to close in on the capital, so far haven’t blocked any roads, it reported.
The actio
n in the EU’s biggest agricultural producer coincides with the opening on Monday of the Group of 20 meetings in Brazil where the bloc is expected to reach a trade agreement with Mercosur countries, Arnaud Rousseau, head of the powerful FNSEA farmers’ union, said last week. “The Mercosur agreement risks having dramatic consequences.”
France has long opposed the deal with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Its farmers and meat and poultry producers are demanding guarantees that their Latin American rivals comply with EU health and environmental standards, including on antibiotics and pesticides.
On Monday, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard told France Bleu Besancon radio that the country is reaching out to other EU states including the Netherlands, Italy and Poland to try to form a “veto minority” to block the deal “which is not a good accord, and which crystallizes the deep discontent of farmers.”
The country’s top farming unions, grappling with bleak harvests due to bad weather, had given the new government until mid-November to meet their demands — which include protecting inter-European trade from cheaper competition.
Mercosur producers are currently the EU’s largest suppliers of bovine and poultry meat, and a potential agreement would significantly increase those volume, hurting local producers, they said in a statement last week.
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