The mega trade agreement that upsets French farmers

As the ink dried on one of the world’s most important trade deals, signed in Uruguay this month and hailed as a milestone for the global economy, anger was brewing thousands of miles away in France.

under the agreement between the EU, on the one hand, and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, on the other, tariffs will be considerably reduced and the amounts of permitted imports and exports will be increased.

The agreement would affect almost 800 million people.

This stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s plans to sharply increase protectionism when he returns to the White House next month.

The deal must still be approved by the EU’s 27 member states, and France plans to block it over fears it will harm its agricultural sector.

Alix Heurtault, a 34-year-old French farmer, says she is worried about her future if the planned deal goes ahead.

“I fear the deal will make making ends meet even more difficult for farmers like me,” he says.

So he’s keeping his fingers crossed that the French government can stop him.

The planned trade deal will mean more South American meat, chicken and sugar will reach the EU, and at lower prices. While in the opposite direction, companies such as European automobiles, clothing and wine would have more access to the Mercosur area.

For France to block the deal it will have to persuade at least three other EU countries, representing at least 35% of the total population, to join it. Ireland, Poland and Austria are also opposed, but Italy will likely also have to join to reach the required population quota.

And with the media giving very conflicting reports about Italy’s position, we will have to wait and see which way Italians will go when the vote is held sometime in 2025.

Meanwhile, French farmers continue to pressure Paris not to back down. French President Emmanuel Macron is listening and has described the trade deal as “unacceptable in its current form.”

Ms. Heurtault grows sugar beets, wheat and barley on a 150-hectare farm in the small town of Villeneuve-sur-Auvers, located 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Paris.

She says the deal would seriously hurt French farmers to help EU manufacturers. “It seems that we are a bargaining chip. Farmers in Mercosur countries (the name of the bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) have fewer restrictions regarding pesticides and lower labor costs.”

Ms Heurtault’s views are widely held across the French agricultural sector, which has been holding regular protests in recent months.

A few weeks ago, about 200 farmers dumped bales of straw in front of the Grand Palais museum and exhibition center in Paris.

They lit red flares and chanted slogans such as “We are feeding you, show us some respect.”

The protest was held to coincide with an annual meeting of commodity importers and exporters that took place at the site.

Stéphane Gallais, livestock farmer and national secretary of the farmers’ union Confédération Paysanne, which had organized the event, explained the reasons for its celebration.

“Today’s demonstration is a stance against free trade, especially the EU-Mercosur agreement which we have opposed since it was first discussed in the late 1990s,” he said.

While France opposes the trade deal, other EU nations, such as Germany, Spain and Portugal, are strongly in favor of it.

Proponents welcome the fact that it would be a stark contrast to Trump’s threats to increase protectionism.

“It would be a good sign at a time when we are moving in the opposite direction toward economic fragmentation and protectionism, especially with the re-election of free-trade-skeptic U.S. President Donald Trump,” says Uri Dadush, a research professor of trade policy at the University of Maryland in the United States.

Professor Dadush adds that while European farmers will be negatively affected, this will be very limited.

“The agreement is a threat to European farmers, as the world’s most competitive agricultural sector gains access to their market, but we are talking about a small liberalization spread over a long period of time,” he says.

He notes that under the agreement Mercosur nations would still have limits on what they can export to the EU. Like his initial proposal to increase the annual quota of beef exports, which still represents less than 1% of EU meat consumption.

Professor Dadush adds that “the agreement is an opportunity to push for much-needed market-oriented reform in the EU’s heavily subsidized agricultural sector and Mercosur’s highly protected manufacturing sector.”

Chris Hegadorn, associate professor of global food policy at Paris-based Sciences Po University and former secretary of the U.N. Committee on World Food Security, says the deal would be broadly beneficial for Europe, including its farmers.

“Obviously it depends on the subcategory you look at, but French cheese and wine producers will benefit,” he says.

He adds that it will also improve health and environmental standards in Mercosur countries and increase ties with the EU at a time when “China is also trying to gain a foothold in Latin America.”

But David Cayla, an economics professor at the University of Angers in western France and a member of the left-wing collective “The Dismayed Economists,” doubts that the EU can impose higher standards on Latin American countries.

“It is impossible to control its implementation,” he says. “Our farmers will only face greater competition from countries with a better climate and more fertile soils.

“But we need to protect European agriculture; that is also a question of food sovereignty,” he stresses, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic showed how quickly global supply chains can collapse in times of crisis.

Antoine Gomel, who in 2017 took over his family’s 24-hectare chicken and meat farm in a small village near Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France, says opposing the trade deal is saving the French countryside. .

“Farms continue to disappear and our villages are left deserted. The agreement will only accelerate this situation,” says the 42-year-old.

“But farms are crucial for cohesion in the countryside, not least because they create jobs. People in France and abroad are increasingly voting for the far right because they feel disoriented and alone.

“Farms can help bring them together, literally anchoring them.”

In front of the Grand Palais in Paris, cleaners swept up the remains of protesters’ straw.

Farmer Stéphane Gallais was still nearby, watching them. “The EU-Mercosur agreement is very damaging and would be really symbolic if EU member states did not ratify it,” he said.