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France is still trying to assemble a “blocking minority” within the European Union to prevent a trade deal with four South American countries from coming into force, President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday.
The deal between Brussels and Mercosur bloc members Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay was announced as a “win-win” by EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in December but is facing stiff opposition from France and agricultural groups.
“Our farmers cannot become an adjustment tool,” Macron told reporters at France’s Agriculture Show which opened in Paris.
“Neither an adjustment tool for purchasing power … nor an adjustment tool for trade agreements,” Macron said. “This is also why we are opposed to the Mercosur accord in the form that it was signed.”
The agreement was announced by von der Leyen at a summit in Montevideo.
Although negotiations have concluded, the EU-Mercosur deal still needs to be approved by at least 15 of the European Union’s 27 member nations representing a minimum of 65 percent of the EU population.
It would create a sprawling free-trade zone of more than 700 million people.
Germany, Spain, Portugal and others have welcomed the agreement, but France, with backing from Italy and Poland, said from the start that it was not acceptable in its current form.
European farmers are crying foul over supposedly less stringent regulations on the sector in South America, pointing especially to the industry’s role in destroying huge swathes of the Amazon rainforest, a crucial buffer against climate change.
