French farmers FURY at EU over US imports – ‘VERY damaging to European agriculture’

The president of the Grain Producers’ Union (OPG), Nicolas Jaquet, blasted Mr Juncker’s latest promise to the US President.

The OPG chief argued that Mr Juncker’s pledge to Mr to remove US trade barriers for soybeans is a threat to the common agricultural policy (CAP).

In an open letter to the head of the European Commission, he said: “To help President Trump engage in a trade showdown with China, you want the EU to import more soybeans from the United States.

“Soy imports are very damaging Europe’s agriculture. 

“The areas we should be spending on oilseeds and protein crops are, by default, grown in wheat.

“As a result, the has become artificially surplus in wheat while it is globally deficit in the grain sector.

“To sell this wheat, we have to sell it at a low price on the world market.

“In 30 years, this drift has divided by 3, in constant currency, the European price of wheat.” 

Mr Jaquet also described US soy imports as “toxic and unwanted”, coming from productions that didn’t follow European’s high standards.

He said that 95 percent of American soy varieties have been banned from European’s fields as they are deemed an “environmental and health risk”, being genetically modified.

These include many glyphosate-compatible varieties that had been treated several times with the controversial drug.

It was “astonishing” that the EU, despite its largely glyphosate-free own products, sought to ban the total herbicide but was at the same time attempting to open the door to imports that “are known to be contaminated at a high level,” the OPG president added. 

, after weeks of tensions over trade tariffs between the US and the EU.

Following crunch talks between the leaders, who met at the White House, Mr Trump said both sides had agreed to “work together towards zero tariffs”.

He also announced the EU had agreed to ease restrictions on American exports of liquefied natural gas and soybeans to Europe.

Mr Trump added trade between the two sides would now be “more reciprocal”.

(Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg)