Emmanuel Macron warned that France would continue to oppose the European Union’s agreement with Mercosur

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that Paris will maintain its opposition to the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur when France assumes the rotating EU presidency in early 2022.

The opposition of the French president continues focusing on climate and biodiversity protection.

“France is against the agreement with Mercosur as it is negotiated today and we will continue to be very clear on this subject. Not because we are not comfortable with our friends in Mercosur but because by definition, this agreement, as conceived and conceived, cannot be compatible with our climate and biodiversity agenda», He declared in Marseille (south of France), in front of the World Conservation Congress (IUCN).

“We must reinvent our trade policies so that they are consistent with our climate policies, with our biodiversity policies, it is a necessity”he added.

The French leader, in the presence of some EU leaders who also attended, asked to give them “a certain coherence” so that the trade partners of the European Union increase their environmental protection. “France has synchronized its “commercial and environmental” priorities and at EU level “we must give ourselves some consistency”, he stressed.

In this sense, he insisted on that the trade agreements negotiated by the EU in the future “reflect” its environmental ambitions with clauses on the fight against climate change and the defense of biodiversity.

Concluded in June 2019 after 20 years of negotiations, this free trade agreement with the four Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) caused a wave of criticism in Europe, especially from the agricultural sector and environmentalists.

It was negotiated by the European Commission on behalf of EU countries, but the treaty will only be definitively ratified when the parliaments of all member states have done so.

Some countries, such as France and Germany, have been reluctant and In particular, they call into question Brazil’s commitment to the environment, in particular with the increase in fires in the Amazon.

Concretely, France believes that there should be more negotiations with Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) to guarantee three points: stop deforestation, respect the Paris Climate Agreements and that products imported from these countries comply with European health and environmental standards.

(With information from AFP and EFE)

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