(VOVWORLD) - Farmers protest across France on Monday and Tuesday as the prospect of a trade deal between European and Mercosur countries sharpens discontent over foreign competition that fuelled a farming crisis earlier this year.
Ahead of the deal, a group of farmers blocked multiple routes near Paris with hundreds of tractors on Sunday evening. French President Emmanuel Macron is on a week-long trip to Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
French Prime Minister Michel Barnier and other officials say French opposition to the EU-South America Free Trade Agreement is because cheap agricultural products from South America will flood the European market and France will be the most affected.
The European Commission expects the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement to be signed by the end of this year and become official when 15 member states, representing 65% of the EU’s population, ratify it.
But the agreement is causing division in Europe between supporters like Germany and Spain and opponents, led by France, including smaller countries like Malta, Cyprus, and Luxembourg.
Mercosur, the Southern Common Market, is a South American trade bloc which includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia.