“We must not align standards with the lowest bidder” says Olivier Lainé of the Confédération paysanne 76

“We must not align standards with the lowest bidder”, says Olivier Lainé of the Confédération paysanne 76, guest of France Bleu Normandie this Wednesday, November 27. He is opposed to the free trade treaty between Europe and Mercosur, in particular because of the difference in standards between the two markets. This is the divergence that pits his union against the FNSEA, the main agricultural union, and the Young Farmers. “If I had been a farmer in the 1960s, I would have favored pesticides and then chemical fertilizers, because indeed, it seemed like progress. I believe that today, we can no longer put blinders and say 'It has no consequences.' It is the farmers who are the first victims of pollution, when we are on a tractor applying pesticides.”

Olivier Lainé says he is opposed to this free trade treaty, because the mirror clauses, the reciprocity of norms between the two markets, promised as a guarantee of security, would certainly be inapplicable according to him. “It's more of a smokescreen clause, it doesn't work. Today, for example, we don't have the right to import beef with hormones. But who is going to check that? It's in the law, but it comes to us anyway, so we don't believe it at all.”