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The announcement took place a week after the French Minister of Agriculture, Didier Guillaume, had warned the Macron government not to ratify the free trade agreement "in its current form". The evaluation committee will be led by Stefan Ambec, environmental economist at the Toulouse School of Economics, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe's office announced in a statement. The group "will make recommendations to address the identified risks" of the agreement and will seek to "shed light on the stakes" to try to "prepare the position of France," reads the statement.
The French committee "will pay particular attention to the effects of the agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and biodiversity".
The EU concluded in June an interim agreement with the trading bloc founded by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, thus ending two decades of negotiations and committing to strengthen free trade in a context of increasing protectionism.
The agreement, which has yet to be ratified by the many national parliaments concerned, will cover markets totaling some 780 million consumers representing a quarter of the world's gross domestic product (GDP).
Once in place, it should remove 99% of agricultural and industrial tariffs on both sides and eliminate a myriad of technical hurdles.
Trade officials in Brussels said the deal, the largest ever, will save European companies more than 3.6 billion pounds (4 billion euros) in tariffs each year. year.
The French centrist leader called the free trade agreement "good", but warned that his government would remain "vigilant".
Macron told reporters on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan shortly after the announcement of the agreement: "I consider this agreement, at this stage, a good agreement because our demands have all been been taken into account by the government. negotiators.
France has expressed particular concern about the risk of a mbadive increase in South American agricultural exports to Europe, particularly beef.
Mr Macron said, however, that the provisions protecting European certification of the geographical origin of food products and limiting sugar and beef exports were rebaduring.
For beef, Brussels said the deal would allow the EU to import 97,000 tonnes of Mercosur a year, with a tariff of 7½ percent
The agreement will also allow the importation of 177 000 tonnes of poultry from Mercosur "duty-free", as well as 24 500 tonnes of pork at a duty of £ 76 (€ 83) per tonne.
But the agreement still faces fierce opposition, especially from EU agriculture unions such as the French FNSEA.
The head of the FNSEA, Christiane Lambert, above, said after the conclusion of the agreement: "The unacceptable signing of a Mercosur-EU agreement, which will expose European farmers to unfair competition and the consumers to total deception ".
For his part, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan, said he understood the concerns of European farmers, but that in return, the pact would open markets for them.
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