French farmers stage protest in Paris to oppose EU-Mercosur trade deal | France

French farmers with tractors blocked the roads around the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe to protest the EU’s trade agreement with South American countries, which they said would create unfair competition.

Farmers blockaded highways outside Paris on Thursday and dozens of tractors broke through police checkpoints into the city center in a pre-dawn protest organized by the Coordination Rurale union.

EU countries will vote on Friday on the agreement with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, the four members of the South American trade bloc known as Mercosur. If approved, it will create a common market of approximately 800 million people and increase the EU’s exports of vehicles, machinery, wine and spirits.

Many European farmers fear being harmed by cheaper agricultural products coming from the Mercosur single market. Belgian farmers also protested, driving more than 1,000 tractors into Brussels last month.

“We are between anger and despair. We have a feeling of abandonment – Mercosur is an example of this,” Stéphane Pelletier, a senior member of Coordination Rurale, told Reuters beneath the Eiffel Tower.

The French government said officials “won’t wait.” Blocking roads or “trying to gather in front of parliament – with all its symbolism – is once again illegal,” government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon told French radio.

Surrounded by a heavy police presence, the farmers also demonstrated in front of the lower house of the French parliament, heckling the president of the national assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, who came out to meet them.

The Mercosur agreement is supported by Germany and Spain, but France, aware of the powerful agricultural lobby, has long been strongly opposed. Paris won important concessions at the last minute but remains wary of the deal due to municipal elections due in March.

French president Emmanuel Macron confirmed on Thursday he would vote against the deal, citing “unanimous political rejection” in France, but this appeared unlikely to derail the agreement.

The EU and Mercosur blocs have been negotiating the agreement for the last 26 years; The talks are gaining further momentum with the protectionist agenda of the Trump administration and the rapidly increasing influence of competition from China.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen finally signed the agreement in late 2024 despite opposition from France, Poland and several smaller states, but it has yet to be ratified by EU member states and parliament.

The free trade agreement aims to reduce tariffs imposed by South America on European cars, clothing, food, fine wines and medicines. In return, the EU will open its markets, although it will impose restrictions on imports of beef, pork, ethanol, honey and sugar.

In a bid to win support from member states, the Commission this week proposed an additional €45 billion in EU funding for farmers in the bloc’s next seven-year budget; this largely offset the planned 20% cut in agricultural financing.

France had demanded further changes, including tougher measures that would allow the EU to reimpose trade tariffs if prices fall by 5 percent instead of the 8 percent stipulated in the agreement. It also sought permission to ban the import of crops grown with pesticides banned in the EU.

But the commission’s latest proposal appears to have won the support of Italy, whose support has long been uncertain. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni this week praised what he called “a common-sense approach to supporting European agriculture.”

Rome is still believed to be pushing for tighter price guarantees, while analysts believe Italy’s apparent support should now allow the deal to be ratified by a qualified majority of member states on Friday, with or without French support.

According to the qualified majority system, the votes of 15 of the EU’s 27 countries, representing 65% of the population, are required for the agreement to be approved. It can be blocked by at least four countries representing 35% or more of the EU population.

Without the 13% of the bloc’s population represented by Italy’s casting vote, France, opposed by Ireland, Poland and Hungary, is unlikely to have the numbers to block the deal.