MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

France's Parliament gives thumbs down to EU-Mercosur FTA

France's Senate joined the Lower House in an unusual display of consensus in an otherwise politically divided country

France's Parliament was unusually united this week in rejecting the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), thus yielding to protests from local farmers who fear unfair competition. The Senate gave its thumbs down Thursday, just one day after the Lower House did the same by 484 votes against 70.

The deal between the 27-member EU and Mercosur was agreed on in 2019 but has stalled as it moves through approval votes in individual countries, particularly France out of fear it would devastate its agriculture sector with a production not subject to the same environmental parameters in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Bolivia was not a full member of Mercosur in 2019 but it is now.

With both houses of parliament concurring, France is sending a strong message to other European countries, said Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot. Poland has already joined France's initiative which is now two European countries short of forming a blocking minority.

According to statements from French President Emmanuel Macron last week, Austria and Italy share “the same concerns,” while Germany and Spain have both said they want the trade deal completed swiftly.

On the other hand, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula d Silva insisted this week that he intends “to sign this agreement this year.” He added that France does not get to decide on the outcome. European Commission President “Ursula von der Leyen has the power to make the agreement happen,” Lula argued.

“If the French don't want the agreement, they don't decide anything else, it is the European Commission who decides,” Lula said during a forum on industry in Brasilia.

The French Parliament's stance came in the aftermath of a controversy generated in Brazil by a letter published last week by Carrefour's CEO Alexandre Bompard saying the supermarket chain “would not sell Mercosur meat” in France. The announcement was followed by boycott calls and the suspension by Brazilian suppliers of meat deliveries to Carrefour group stores in Brazil, which accounted for 23% of the company's turnover last year. On Tuesday, Bompard apologized in a letter to Brazil's Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro.

Discussions on the progress of the negotiations will be on the table during the Dec. 5-6 Mercosur Summit in Montevideo.