OREANDA-NEWS Farmers' associations in France have taken to the streets to oppose the free trade agreement between the European Union and Latin American producers. This is reported by Bloomberg.

Several dozen farmers on tractors staged protests and threatened to block roads to Paris. They demanded more support from the government, and also criticized the authorities' plans to allow cheaper goods from Latin America to enter the market.

France has long opposed the agreement with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, as local farmers and meat and poultry producers demand guarantees that their Latin American competitors comply with EU sanitary and environmental standards, including with regard to antibiotics and pesticides.

On Monday, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevar said France was asking other EU members, the Netherlands, Italy and Poland to try to form a "veto minority" and block a deal with the MERCOSUR bloc (the common market of South American countries). The country's largest farmers' unions, facing crop failures due to bad weather, have given the government until mid-November to comply with their demands, including to protect intra-European trade from cheap competitors' goods.

Already, Latin American producers are the largest suppliers of beef and poultry meat to the region, and a potential agreement would significantly increase these volumes, which would harm local producers, farmers warn.

French politician and leader of the Patriots movement Florian Philippot has already warned that the agreement with South America will kill the country's agriculture. To support local farmers, he insisted on leaving the European Union. To save agriculture, it must be done as soon as possible before unification destroys his country, he stressed.