French farmers ask Macron to ‘stand firm’ on EU-Mercosur agreement

French farmers asked President Emmanuel Macron to continue opposing the EU-Mercosur deal on environmental grounds before meeting with his Brazilian counterpart Lula da Silva on Friday, while the EU Parliament’s chair of the delegation for relations with Brazil expects the deal to be ratified by the end of the year, Lusa reports.

Lula and Macron will have lunch on Friday on the sidelines of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris. Brazil – like the European Commission – is very much in favour of pushing the deal forward and opposes France’s demand to have so-called “mirror clauses” featured in the deal.

“I want to talk to President Macron because France is very tough in defending its agricultural interests”, but “other (countries) also have the right to defend their agriculture”, Lula said at a press conference in Rome on Thursday.

But according to Arnaud Rousseau, head of France’s National Federation of Agricultural Workers’ Unions (FNSEA), France must not give in to Brazil’s demands, he said in a letter published on Thursday. Macron must “stand firm” on France’s position, he added.

“As it stands, this agreement would allow the import of several 100,000s of tonnes of sugar, ethanol, beef, poultry and corn from farming systems that are the antithesis of the standards demanded of European farmers,” writes Rousseau.

“It would be a source of unacceptable distortion of competition, leading to further production losses in France”, he said about a deal that has been over 20 years in the making and, if ratified, could open trade between two blocs comprising a total of 750 million people and 25% of the world’s GDP.

FNSEA’s appeal has also been joined by the agricultural and agrifood interprofessions for poultry (Anvol), cereals (Intercéréales) and beef and sheep (Interbev).

For the time being, France refuses to sign the agreement, namely on environmental grounds. During a February visit to the Agriculture Salon, Macron pointed out that Mercosur countries Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay did not respect the Paris Climate Agreement or the sanitary constraints imposed on European farmers.

On 13 June, French lawmakers in the National Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the agreement to be reopened to include so-called “mirror clauses”.

While French Foreign Trade Minister Olivier Becht agreed with the resolution’s demands, he did not mention whether he would defend them before the relevant EU institutions.

Ratification before year’s end

Meanwhile, in an interview with Lusa in Brasilia, Portuguese Social Democrat MEP and delegation chair for relations with Brazil José Manuel Fernandes said he was “convinced that the window of opportunity that exists [until the end of the year] will not be missed”.

The European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) is currently paying a visit to Brazil, and according to the MEP, the momentum is there as Spain will assume the EU Council presidency for six months in July.

“There is a qualified majority for the agreement to move forward in the European Council and the European Parliament,” he said, adding the situation will be murkier next year.

While the first half of next year will be marked by EU elections and a Belgian presidency that “will not be so favourable”, according to Fernandes, the second half of the year will have Hungary take over the EU Council presidency, “with all the problems it has about the rule of law”.

He added that while there is currently a majority in favour of the agreement in the European Parliament, “there will be elections on June 9 2024, and from then on, we don’t know what parliament we will have”.

“It is more than a trade agreement. It is an agreement where the values we share are present, such as democracy, freedom, the rule of law, human rights, equality, among others,” he noted.

Referring to the Greens group in the European Parliament in particular, Fernandes said there are “protectionist people who do not want any kind of trade with the argument that the agreement is against sustainability”.

Fernandes also bemoaned those who “come with environmental issues as a pretext because they don’t want any agreement, ” even if the agreement would have quite a strong monitoring system in place.

Referring to “reluctant countries” like France, Austria and Ireland, he said, “We can put anything we want in the agreement, and there will always be political blocs that will vote against it”.

(Clara Bauer-Babef and Paul Messad | EURACTIV.fr, Miguel Mâncio | Lusa.pt, edited by Cristina Cardoso)