President Emmanuel Macron said in Buenos Aires on Sunday that France would not “sign as is” the free trade treaty between the European Union and Mercosur, saying he wanted to “to reassure farmers”. and “continue” to oppose it.

“France is opposed to this agreement. And I’ll tell you: President (Javier) Milei, he told me himself that he wasn’t satisfied.” of this text, declared Mr. Macron, at the end of a visit to Argentina during which he held two meetings with his Argentine counterpart.

In this context, Mr. Macron reported that he had told his host that “for Argentina, (the EU-Mercosur agreement) would be very bad for its reindustrialization, and for us it would be very bad for our agriculture”. “We don’t believe in the pre-agreement as it has been negotiated”, explained Mr. Macron, questioned by the press on the airport tarmac, before leaving Argentina for Brazil, where he is due to attend the G20 summit.

Macron doesn’t think the EU can sign against France

Asked about the possibility of the European Union overruling the French position, Mr. Macron replied “I don’t think so”.saying “European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has great respect for France”..

“We cannot ask our farmers (…) to change their practices, to do without certain phytosanitary products.”in order to have a production “high qualityand “at the same time open up our market to massive imports of products that do not meet the same criteria”.underlined the Head of State.

“Several countries within Mercosur”, and “several other European countriesin addition to France, “are not satisfied with this agreementMr. Macron added. “So we’re going to continue to work hard to defend our model.”he insisted, estimating that “if we’re all reasonable, there’s a way forward, but it won’t be at the expense of our farmers”.

The European Commission, backed by several countries such as Germany and Spain, hopes to sign the free trade treaty negotiated for decades between the EU and the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia) by the end of the year.

French farmers, supported by a unanimous political class, plan to mobilize against the treaty from Monday.