MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

France wants Mercosur-EU deal not signed

France will do its utmost to prevent such an agreement from being signed, Armand was quoted as saying

France will not be signing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the European Union and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), the Russian news service Sputnik reported Thursday. In fact, Paris will do its utmost to block it.

“Under the current conditions, this agreement is not acceptable to France and will not be,” because it would be undermining its agricultural sector and its commitment to the environment, French Prime Minister Michel Barnier told reporters.

Economy Minister Antoine Armand told a local broadcaster that France would do everything possible to ensure that the EU-Mercosur treaty does not go forward unchanged.

“We are using all the means at our disposal, including institutional and voting means at the European level, so that [the agreement with] Mercosur does not go forward as it is,” he said on Sud Radio.

During the interview, he also explained that this agreement was “a direct attack on our farmers” and, in particular, on cattle farmers, whose market could be reduced as a result of “the arrival of meat, and beef in particular, under absolutely unfavorable and unfair conditions.”

He also highlighted a series of environmental issues with which the French government does not agree. “From a climate point of view, this agreement does not respect the standards we have set for ourselves,” he insisted.

France is also luring other European countries to follow suit. ”We are organizing with the European countries to make them understand the danger (of Mercosur),” Armand said. Sud Radio said there were rumors of an alliance with Germany and Poland, among others, in this regard.

In addition, over 600 French parliamentarians (deputies, senators, and MEPs) wrote this week to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to express their opposition to the treaty.

French President Emmanuel Macron is meeting in Buenos Aires this coming weekend with his Argentine colleague Javier Milei, who pulled the South American country's delegation from the United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties 29 (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, an event that seeks to strengthen global cooperation to secure lasting climate solutions. Milei does not want to give in to the so-called Agenda 2030 goals. Argentina is one of the five Mercosur members together with Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Paraguay.