A few days before a national mobilization of farmers, planned for Monday November 18, the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, once again marked his opposition on Friday to the free trade treaty between the European Union and Mercosur. “We must refuse it”he notably launched on France Bleu, displaying his “concern that a free trade treaty will cause the destruction of entire sections of our agriculture”.
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This text, which would be the most important agreement concluded by the European Union, aims to facilitate trade between Europe and South America by gradually eliminating almost all customs duties applied to trade between the two blocks.
“Tens of thousands of tons of beef will return with breeding conditions that are not at all the same as those we impose on our own farmers for public health reasons”lamented the former Minister of Agriculture on Friday, who sees it as a “unfair competition”. On the eve of Emmanuel Macron's trip to Latin America, where this free trade treaty will be discussed, Michel Barnier believes that “neither the President of the Republic nor the Prime Minister that I am will accept this agreement in the current state of things”. “Mercosur, as it stands, is not an acceptable treaty”Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed in mid-October.
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Mobilizations in Bouches-du-Rhône
This interview with Mr. Barnier takes place three days before a mobilization of farmers at the call of the majority union alliance of the FNSEA and Young Farmers from Monday, when the members of the G20 will meet in Rio de Janeiro . But from Friday, farmers demonstrated in Bouches-du-Rhône. In Tarascon, around thirty farmers, arriving around 6:30 a.m., dumped farm waste (manure, plastic sheeting, etc.) using agricultural machinery in front of the tax center, whose plaque had been covered with a Brazilian flag, on which was written “Brazilian Embassy”.
“Our mobilization is part of the preamble to the G20 which is being held in Brazil to express our opposition to an agreement with Mercosur. This agreement would bring into the territory products that have been banned here for years”explained to Agence France-Presse (AFP) Romain Blanchard, president of the FDSEA (majority union) of Bouches-du-Rhône.
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“They want to send us their waste, we send them ours! »he added. About twenty kilometers away, in Châteaurenard, farmers from the FDSEA and Young Farmers walled off public access to the tax center using concrete blocks and cement, before dumping slurry at the end of the morning in front of the building. “The right to demonstrate exists, with respect for people and private property, but I am alongside the farmers”said Michel Barnier at the microphone of France Bleu.
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