The European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries signed on Saturday signed a free trade deal that follows a quarter-century of careful negotiations. France still remains opposed to the trade agreement, with the country’s powerful agricultural lobby warning it could damage local farmers’ livelihoods.
Just wanted to chime in and say that all french representatives voted against it, because France have strong regulations imposed upon farmers and this agreement would allow for food grown or raised under less strict regulations to be sold in France. As these products will probably be sold cheaper, it raises concern for farmers who will stil need to comply to regulations, or for consumer if these regulations are lifted.
Didn’t those regulations also already apply to all other EU countries?
EU regulations are applied in France, but there are stricter regulations, for exemple the ban of more neonicotinoids, herbicides and insecticides than required by EU.
If it were simply those, it seems to be a matter of producing in a way that protects the environment in France, rather than it being a safer, healthier product. The question is why don’t SA countries care about the effects on their environment in the same way, but that is not something for the EU to enforce on them, even if we are indirectly externalizing the negatives of our consumption, just like carbon tax or delocalized production…