French farmers block highway with tractors, decry EU trade deals and agri-bashing

Record ID: 1435659

  • Title: French farmers block highway with tractors, decry EU trade deals and agri-bashing
  • Date: 8th October 2019
  • Summary: BRUMATH, FRANCE (OCTOBER 8, 2019) (REUTERS) TRACTOR WITH PLACARD TRACTORS FARMERS ON ROAD WITH TRACTORS
  • Embargoed: 22nd October 2019 14:16
  • Keywords: farmers protest agriculture Elisabeth Borne MERCOSUR agri-bashing pesticides CETA
  • Location: LA VILLENEUVE-SAINT-MARTIN, BRUMATH AND PARIS, FRANCE
  • City: LA VILLENEUVE-SAINT-MARTIN, BRUMATH AND PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Environment,Climate Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA005B08LKQV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Farmers from around France blocked highways on Tuesday (October 8) with their tractors, denouncing "agri-bashing" and calling for just trade policies.
    The road blockade was the opening salvo of a series of demonstrations planned by two farmers unions to protest against the government's agricultural policy.
    Hundreds of tractors blocked one route of a national highway northwest of Paris, but traffic was smooth on the other side.
    French farmers' protests were riled after the country's parliament approved an EU-Canada trade deal in July, with recent demonstrations by farmers coming on top of the ongoing "yellow vest" protests against President Emmanuel Macron's policies.
    Protests by farmers in July and August resulted in many regional offices of Macron's centrist The Republic on the Move party being vandalised, including manure being dumped outside the office of member of parliament Monique Iborra and fellow MP Romain Grau's office being set on fire.
    French farmers are also angry over the potential hit to their livelihoods from a provisional trade deal struck in June by the EU and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries, which includes major agricultural exporters Brazil and Argentina.
    France's environment minister said on Tuesday (October 8) morning that France will not sign the EU-Mercosur deal under current conditions.
    "We can't sign a trade treaty with a country that doesn't respect the Amazon forest, that doesn't respect the Paris (climate) treaty," Transport and Environment Minister Elisabeth Borne told BFM TV.
    Macron said in late August that he had decided to block the EU-Mercosur deal, accusing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro of lying and playing down concerns about climate change, which also drew criticism from Germany and Britain.
    (Production: Thierry Chiarello, Vincent Kessler, Michaela Cabrera)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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