Brazilian diplomacy hopes to announce in the coming weeks the conclusion of negotiations for the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union. French agribusiness is trying to prevent it and has now gathered allies to pressure the Élysée Palace to overturn the agreement.
The Brazilian government’s expectation is that all the details of the free trade agreement will be agreed before the summit of Mercosur heads of state, scheduled for the beginning of next month, in Uruguay.
French agribusiness says it complies with stricter labor and environmental rules than Latin countries and that, therefore, it would not be able to compete on an equal footing with producers in the region.
The other countries in the bloc would now try to convince French President Emmanuel Macron to approve the agreement.
At the same time, French producers increased pressure to overturn the attempt at consensus. The group stopped the flow of roads with tractors last week and demanded that Macron not abandon French agribusiness.
Two French food retailers announced support for the demonstrations and said they would no longer buy animal protein from Mercosur countries: “Os Mosqueteiros” and Carrefour.
In the case of Carrefour, the group’s CEO, Alexandre Bompard, published a letter in which he said that selling Mercosur meat would be a risk for the French market, which would be “supplied with production that does not respect the same requirements and standards” as French producers.
Soon after, the company’s Brazilian branch said that the decision only applies to French stores.
Still, the statement was poorly received in the national market. Producers went public to say that they would no longer sell to the group and, according to estimates obtained by CNN30% of the chain’s stores in the country reported beef shortages this Friday (22).
Carrefour denies it.
In parallel, at the end of last month, the financial director of Danone, which is also based in France, announced in an interview with Reuters that he would stop buying soy from Brazilian producers due to concerns related to deforestation. But the company denied the information soon after.
The Brazilian government does not rule out the possibility of coordinated action by the Élysée Palace to overturn the Mercosur-European Union agreement.
