The World invited Marc Dufumier, agronomist and honorary professor at AgroParisTech, to share his analyzes and answer some of your questions in this live broadcast.
Why does the EU-Mercosur agreement crystallize the anger of French farmers? On the contrary, what are the benefits of this treaty according to its defenders, notably the EU? What makes free trade agreements still considered attractive, at the price we know in terms of environmental, health and social standards?
“French farmers have many reasons to fear the ratification of the EU-Mercosur agreement, knowing that they are much less competitive on the world market than the very large farmers of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and the 'Uruguay. They have already been burned by previous agreements, such as the so-called Blair House agreement, signed with the United States in November 1992.
The commitment not to put tariff barriers or quotas on the import of protein crops very quickly resulted in massive imports of soybean seeds and meals from the Americas. And today we pay very dearly for this dependence on plant proteins for animal feed. A cost that is not only monetary but also environmental.
Due to the fact that we produce much less alfalfa, clover, lupine and faba bean, all crops which had the effect of fertilizing our soils with nitrogen organically, we are now forced to resort to synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, which are very expensive. in fossil fuels and high emitters of nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas. Added to this is the fact that our soy imports have contributed to deforestation and the deforestation of wooded savannahs in Brazil (admittedly, in smaller proportions than Chinese imports).
French farmers who could be most affected by the ratification of the agreement are producers of meat (beef and poultry), sugar beets and honey. Those who could benefit, on the other hand, are the producers of wines, cheeses and spirits, particularly due to the recognition by the agreement of a large number of our protected designations of origin.
As for the people of the Mercosur countries, is it really in their interest to see their soy surpluses feed French pigs when poor Brazilians confined to the shanty towns can hardly buy any, due to lack of purchasing power? Should we also really deprive them of meat because Europeans seem able to buy it more expensively?
The only real defenders of this agreement seem to be industrialists and those who wish to see the public markets of the Mercousur countries open to European companies and not Chinese ones. »
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