French farmers back on the streets as Mercosur talks fuel discontent

By Manuel Ausloos and Gus Trompiz

PARIS (Reuters) – Farmers will protest across France on Monday as the prospect of a trade deal between European and Mercosur countries sharpens discontent over foreign competition that fuelled a farming crisis earlier this year.

A push by the European Union and South America’s Mercosur bloc to conclude long-running trade negotiations by the end of the year has rekindled anger in France.

Similar frustration was voiced by farmers across Europe last winter after a surge in imports from Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.

However, the mood in France has soured further, after rain-hit harvests, livestock disease outbreaks and a parliamentary election that delayed measures promised to defuse the previous protests, which saw farmers block highways for weeks.

“We have the same demands as in January, nothing has changed,” Armelle Fraiture said on her dairy farm north of Paris. “We must make the government understand that enough is enough.”

As farmers face cheaper imports, burdensome regulations and meagre incomes, a Mercosur deal would represent a bitter “cherry on the cake”, Arnaud Rousseau, head of France’s main farmers’ union, the FNSEA, told BFM TV on Sunday.

Tens of thousands of farms in France, the EU’s biggest agricultural producer, were in financial trouble, he said.

French farmers fear a Mercosur accord will bring more beef, chicken, sugar and maize from Brazil and Argentina, countries they say use pesticides on crops and growth antibiotics in livestock that are outlawed in Europe.

Farmers will hold rallies on Monday and Tuesday, mostly in front of government buildings, as part of protests planned until mid-December, Rousseau said.

Ahead of the nationwide action, a small group of farmers with tractors blocked one side of a highway near Paris on Sunday evening, displaying slogans like “Let’s not import the agriculture that we don’t want.”

President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday reiterated his opposition to a deal with Mercosur as proposed.

But with France lacking EU allies in the Mercosur talks, and rural grievances running deep, the authorities may struggle to placate the farmers.

“We know we’re going out (to protest), but we don’t know when we’re coming back,” Fraiture said.

(Reporting by Manuel Ausloos and Gus Trompiz; Additional reporting by Marco Trujillo and Stephanie Lecocq; Editing by David Holmes)