France asked the European Union this Sunday (14) to postpone the deadlines set for the signing of the trade agreement with Mercosur, considering that the conditions are not met for a vote by member states, the government presidency said in a press release.
“France requests that the December deadlines be postponed to continue the work and obtain legitimate measures to protect our European agriculture,” explained the office of the head of government Sébastien Lecornu.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, wants to sign this free trade agreement with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay next Saturday at the Mercosur summit in Foz do Iguaçu. For her, the European bloc must obtain the approval of member states this week, between Tuesday and Friday.
France leads the group of European countries reluctant to sign the agreement that the two blocs have been negotiating for two decades.
The European Commission announced in September a “reinforced surveillance” mechanism for agricultural products exposed to this trade agreement such as beef, poultry, rice and ethanol and the possibility of intervening in the market in the event of destabilization.
Before deciding, the countries of the European Union are awaiting the result of the European Parliament’s vote on Tuesday on safeguard measures aimed at reassuring farmers, particularly French ones, who are fiercely opposed to the treaty.
Before the French government’s statement, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Roland Lescure, declared in an interview published this Sunday by the German newspaper Handelsblatt that, “in its current form, the treaty is not acceptable.”
According to Lescure, obtaining a “strong and effective protection clause” is one of France’s “three conditions” before giving the green light.
The second is that standards applied to production in the European Union “must also be applied to production in partner countries”, said the minister, and the third is “import control”.
The free trade agreement aims to promote exports of European cars, machinery and wine to Mercosur countries, in exchange for facilitating the entry of South American meat, sugar, soy and rice.
French farmers fear that their market will be flooded with agricultural products from Mercosur, deemed more competitive.
If approved, the EU-Mercosur deal would create a common market of 722 million people.
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