France Opposes EU Agreement with MERCOSUR

A free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the MEROSUR bloc of South American countries was reached in December 2024 after twenty years of negotiations. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the leaders of the four MERCOSUR countries – Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Argentina’s Milei, Paraguay’s Peña, and Uruguay’s Lacalle Pou – struck a deal that von der Leyen characterized as a “mutually beneficial agreement.”

The negotiations, which dragged on for many years, were repeatedly deadlocked, and France’s position played an important role in this. Paris feared increased competition from South American goods, especially in the agri-food sector. Now it is France that is trying to unite the so-called “blocking minority” in the European Union, seeking to prevent “a trade agreement with four Latin American countries from coming into force.” This was announced by French President Emmanuel Macron.

“Our farmers cannot become an instrument of adjustment,” Macron said at the Agricultural Salon in Paris, as reported by the AFP news agency. “They can serve neither as a tool for adjusting purchasing power nor as a mechanism for adjusting trade agreements. It is also for this reason that we oppose the MERCOSUR agreement in its current form.”

In order for the trade agreement to take effect, it must be ratified by at least 15 of the 27 European Union’s member states. Leading the pro-agreement camp are Germany and Spain, while the main opponents of the agreement include France, Italy, and Poland. The latter believe that the more lenient environmental regulations in South American countries compared to the EU give their products a competitive advantage. Importing goods from this part of the world, they argue, could deal a serious blow to the local agro-industrial sector.