Particle.news

Download on the App Store

French Farmers Launch Two-Day Actions Against EUMercosur Deal

Farm groups say duty-free imports in the proposed EUMercosur pact would undercut French agriculture.

Overview

  • The FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs are mounting supermarket campaigns, tractor convoys and local blockades on 25–26 September to denounce what they call aberrant imports.
  • Their focus is the trade text enabling duty-free beef, poultry, sugar, honey and rice, which they argue would depress prices and bypass French-level sanitary and environmental standards.
  • FNSEA president Arnaud Rousseau pressed Emmanuel Macron for a clear position after the European Commission unveiled strengthened safeguard clauses on 3 September and began ratification.
  • Actions are dispersed nationwide with events in Dijon, Chartres, Versailles and other locales, while rival unions pursue separate paths, including a 14 October tractor protest in Paris announced by the Confédération paysanne.
  • The agreement still requires approval by EU member states and the European Parliament, and the Commission is seeking sign-off by the end of December.