She is one of 600 parliamentarians to say no to the Mercosur treaty. Sandrine Le Feur, Renaissance MP for Finsitère and organic farmer in Pleyber-Christ, signed a transpartisan forum against the free trade treaty between the European Union and South American countries, while the FNSEA announced demonstrations of farmers from November 18. In Brittany, the FRSEA first announces meetings with the authorities, even if farmers made themselves heard on Thursday evening in Callac, in Côtes-d'Armor.
“A deal from an old time”
“It is a treaty which will bring us beef, poultry, rice which do not currently respect our environmental standards or our social standards. And the countries of South America are unable to prove to us that the products meet these standards. And the European Union is not able to control them either. So, to date, this agreement, which dates from a long time ago, which began in 1999, does not at all respect our Paris agreements either.”
“There is meat with hormones, there are pesticides which are completely banned in France and in Europe. For farmers, this is unfair competition, for consumers, these are unacceptable products. You should know that on average, we have farms that are 50 hectares in France. In Brazil, we are at more than 100,000 hectares, so it is not at all conceivable. In addition to that, France has been committed to fighting deforestation for a very long time and there, we would have enormous imported deforestation since in Brazil, they are clearing the Amazon forest to expand their farm. So it’s an agreement on all levels which is unacceptable.”
“General mobilization”
The Minister of the Economy, Antoine Armand, said yesterday “use all means to block the treaty” : But will France be heavy enough to influence the position of the European Union? “France is not really isolated? There are other countries, perhaps a little less influential within the European Union, which support France. But it is true that Germany and Spain absolutely want to sign this agreement. They have interests, notably automobiles. But I believe that with a general citizen and political mobilization of farmers, we will put pressure so that this agreement is not signed. I hope that, at the level of the government and even the President of the Republic, there will be a strong commitment to ensure that this treaty is not separated. That is to say that there is a commercial and political agreement. I hope that this agreement will not be split into two since if it is unfortunately signed, in any case, it will also go before the French Parliament. And so there we will also have our say. However, if it is dissociated, if the political agreement is not signed with the commercial agreement, we will not have our say in the event of signature. But obviously the biggest struggle is not signing this agreement.”
