MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

France lobbying among EU partners to veto trade agreement with Mercosur

Minister Annie Genevard admitted Paris is trying to convince “a maximum number of countries”, to set up a veto system to impede the trade agreement EU/Mercosur

French Agriculture minister, Annie Genevard has declared to her country’s media that Paris is trying to convince “maximum number of countries”, such as Belgium, Bulgaria, Austria, Ireland and “even maybe Italy” to set up a veto system to impede the signing of a trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, the South American trade group.

 When asked why France opposes any agreement with Mercosur, (signed in 2019), and what needs to be reformed to be accepted, minister Genevard candidly admitted that she actually “did not know”.

But she pointed out that negotiations can’t be base in “any form of financial compensations”, since what EU farmers really want is to continue producing and competing under similar conditions, “with the same arms”

Meanwhile farming unions in the south of France have called for more protest action in the next few weeks, just days after a protest in Occitanie, and less than a year after national blockades in Paris and nationwide.

Unions including the powerful umbrella organization FNSEA and the Jeunes Agriculteurs are jointly calling for “a resumption of action from November 15”. Feelings are particularly heightened in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, where farmers feel that their situation has dramatically worsened.

It comes after farmers protested in January and February 2024, staging numerous blockades to protest against their declining incomes, and what they describe as a “lack of action” from the government.

They also believe that much of the progress they may have made at the start of the year has been “halted and put on ‘stand by’’ by the dissolution” of parliament, which was called unexpectedly by President Macron over the summer, said Laurent Depieds, President of FNSEA. 

He said that the previous government had begun making “changes in the right direction”, including on fuel, micro-farms, and capital gains on farm transfers. But the arrival of the new Agriculture Minister, Annie Genevard, has required farmers to “start explaining things all over again”, he said.

He added that while Ms Genevard appears to be “listening”, no action has yet been forth coming. “We're still waiting for proof from the new minister,” said Mr Depieds. An aromatic farmer, Depieds said that “everyone in the region” (an estimated 19,000 farmers in the PACA region) had been affected by dropping purchasing power and a slowdown in the economy. He said that prices for his lavandin essential oil have “collapsed by 30%”.

Other sectors, including in fruit and vegetable production, have found that their “growing costs have rocketed” and that inflation in the costs of raw materials and wages is “eating away at producers’ margins”, Depieds added. 

This has been added to the impact of frost and floods, reduced yields, and consumer prices that are being kept artificially low “under pressure from international markets” and European trade agreements.

Many farmers are suffering from a 20-40% reduction in income, he said. “The farming world is sick,” he said, and the last thing we want is an agreement with Mercosur. “The cry of farmers who want to be able to make a decent living from their profession has still not been heard,” he said.