The EU negotiated a preliminary agreement for a free trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc, comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. A key priority for the South American countries was access to the European agriculture market, where they hoped to sell meat, poultry and other products. The Mercosur trade deal proved so unpopular that French President Emmanuel Macron was urged this week to oppose the deal. Some have also raised concerns over deforestation in South America.
The French government said in a statement: “The draft agreement has no provision to impose discipline on the practices of the Mercosur countries in the fight against deforestation.
“This is the major shortcoming in this agreement and this is the main reason why, as it stands, France opposes the draft agreement.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier this month expressed “significant doubts” over the deal, given the extent of deforestation, her spokesman said.
Parliaments in Austria, the Netherlands and the Belgian region of Wallonia have also indicated their opposition to the deal in its current form.
This isn’t the first time France has raised its grievances with the trade agreement.
Emmanuel Macron and Irish President Leo Varadkar threatened to vote against a trade deal between the EU and South American trade bloc Mercosur last year unless Brazil, where wildfires have devastated the Amazon rainforest, takes its environmental obligations more seriously.
In a statement ahead of the G7 summit in Biarritz, a spokesperson for Macron said that “the president can only conclude President Bolsonaro lied to him at the Osaka summit”, referring to assurances he gave on climate at the last G20 meeting.
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They added: “In these conditions, France will oppose the Mercosur deal as it is.”
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right president, was accused of encouraging loggers to start fires and of not directing enough resources to fight the blazes.
He has claimed that environmental groups have turned to arson to discredit the country.
Mr Varadkar said: “Bolsonaro’s efforts to blame the fires on environmental NGOs is Orwellian.”
The deal has also faced opposition in France because of the possibility of European markets being opened up to South American meat, which endures less regulation than in Europe.
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Protestors took to the streets across France in small groups in 2018, blocking traffic and displaying banners.
An organisation representing ethanol companies in Europe, ePure, claimed the EU had thrown the industry and farmers “under the bus”, lambasting the bloc for hypocrisy when a preliminary agreement was reached.
It said: “The deal makes concessions to Mercosur countries on ethanol that essentially sacrifice the EU agriculture sector – and domestic production of a renewable energy source – in exchange for gains elsewhere.
“In agreeing to open its markets to Brazilian ethanol, the EU is contradicting its own efforts to increase domestic renewable energy sources in transport, killing incentives to invest in advanced ethanol, and making life even tougher for Europe’s already struggling farmers.
“Last-minute changes to the EU-Mercosur agreement, offering even more access to EU markets for Brazilian sugarcane ethanol, have made a bad deal even worse.
“The agreement essentially trades away Europe’s ethanol industry unless the EU can act quickly and grow the European ethanol market to accommodate a flood of imports.”