The mega trade deal that has French farmers excited

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

Under Art the agreement between the EU, on the one hand, and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, on the other, tariffs will be significantly reduced, and the permitted volumes of imports and exports will be increased.

The deal will affect almost 800 million people.

This is a marked contrast to Donald Trump’s plans to significantly increase protectionism when he returns to the White House next month.

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

Alix Herteau, a 34-year-old French farmer, says she worries about her future if the planned deal goes through.

“I fear that the deal will mean that it will be even more difficult for farmers like me to make ends meet,” she says.

As a result, she’s crossing her fingers that the French government manages to stop it.

The planned trade deal would mean more South American beef, chicken and sugar entering the EU at lower prices. While in the opposite direction, such as European cars, clothes and wine will have more access to the MERCOSUR area.

For France to block the deal, it would need to convince 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 probably also need to join in order to reach the required population quota.

And with the media giving very mixed messages about Italy’s position, we will have to wait and see which way the Italians will go when the vote takes place in 2025.

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

Ms. Hertaud grows sugar beet, wheat and barley on a 150-hectare farm in the small village of Villeneuve-sur-Auverre, located 60 km (37 miles) south of Paris.

She says the deal will hit French farmers hard to help EU producers. “It feels like we’re a bargaining chip. Farmers in MERCOSUR countries (the bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay is called) have fewer restrictions on pesticides and lower labor costs.”

Ms Herteau’s views are widely shared across the French agricultural sector, which has seen regular protests in recent months.

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

They lit red flares and chanted slogans like “We feed you, respect us.”

The protest action was timed to the annual meeting of importers and exporters of goods, which takes place at its venue.

Stéphane Halle, livestock farmer and national secretary of the farmers’ union Confédération Paysanne, which organized the event, explained why it was being held.

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

While France opposes the trade deal, other EU countries such as Germany, Spain and Portugal strongly support it.

Supporters hailed the fact that it would be a marked contrast to Trump’s threats to increase protectionism.

“This would be a good signal at a time when we are moving in the opposite direction of economic fragmentation and protectionism, especially with the re-election of the US president, a free trade skeptic, Donald Trump,” said Uri Dadush, a research professor of trade policy at the University of Maryland in USA.

Professor Dadush adds that while there will be a negative impact on European farmers, he says it will be very limited.

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

He notes that under the agreement, MERCOSUR countries will still have restrictions on what they can export to the EU. For example, their proposed initial increased annual beef export quota still represents less than 1% of EU meat consumption.

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

Chris Hegadorn, adjunct professor of global food policy at Sciences Po University of Paris and former secretary of the UN Committee on World Food Security, says the agreement would generally be good for Europe – including its farmers.

“Obviously it depends on the sub-category you’re looking 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 Cailla, an economics professor at the University of Angers in western France and a member of the left-wing collective Confused Economists, doubts the EU will be able to impose higher standards in Latin American countries.

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

“But we need to protect European agriculture – it’s also a matter of food sovereignty,” he stresses, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic has shown how quickly global supply chains can collapse during a crisis.

Antoine Gomel, who in 2017 took over the family’s 24-hectare chicken and beef 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, leaving our villages desolate – the deal will only accelerate that,” says the 42-year-old.

“But farms are crucial to rural cohesion, 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 contribute to bringing them back together by literally anchoring them.”

Even before the Grand Palais in Paris, cleaners were sweeping up the remains of straw from the protesters.

The farmer Stefan Halle was still around watching them. “The EU-Mercasur deal is very harmful, and it would be really symbolic if the EU member states did not ratify it,” he said.