French farmers say that EU agriculture is increasingly subjected to environmental regulations, while their South American competitors do not have to comply with such standards. They fear this will lead to an uneven playing field.
To address this, EU proposals are already being prepared to apply a kind of environmental adjustment on imports from non-EU countries, without labeling it as an additional import environmental tax. However, there is not yet final agreement among EU countries and the European Parliament on such a ‘mirror’ mechanism and a ‘level playing field.’
Concerns about the impact of Mercosur on their own agricultural sector and the environment exist in multiple European countries. Other countries argue that these complaints are too late, claiming the increasing South American food exports are an unavoidable consequence of the liberal free trade policies advocated in the EU.
The appeal was drafted by the French farmers' organization (FNSEA) and sector groups for livestock and meat (Interbev), grains (Intercereales), poultry manure (ANVOL), sugar (AIBS), and oil and protein crops (Terres Univia). It is still uncertain how Macron will respond. He has previously stated that he will defend French economic interests to the utmost.
The European Commission recently announced that the Mercosur agreement will not be ratified this year. France will hold the EU presidency for half a year next year. According to plans, ratification could then be completed.
Behind the scenes, work is underway on an ‘annex’ to the already agreed text of the agreement. This annex would require the South American countries to comply with ‘roughly the same’ environmental standards as the EU, although this would largely focus on the massive deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. This does little to alleviate the competition concerns of EU farmers.