French farmers ready tractors for massive protest against South American imports
French farmers plan country-wide protests against EU-Mercosur trade talks and foreign competition. Local dairy-farmers and crop-growers join forces to show their anger about cheaper imports from South America
French farm-owners are getting ready for a big monday protest - its about the EU trying to make a trade-deal with South American countries (which could flood markets with cheap food)
Armelle Fraiture‚ who runs a dairy farm near Paris says: “Nothing changed since our winter protests; we need to show them that weʼve had enough“
The protests which start on 11/18 will include:
- Highway blockades with farm machines
- Rallies near govt offices
- Week-long demonstrations
Arnaud Rousseau‚ who leads the main farmers group FNSEA thinks that tens of thousands of French farms are having money problems; the new trade-deal would be “a cherry on top“ of their troubles - farmers dont like that South American countries use chemicals and medicines that Europe banned long ago
A small group already blocked a Paris highway showing signs against food imports they dont want in France. Even though President Emmanuel Macron says heʼs against the deal - farmers think its not enough: they started putting tractors on roads and nobody knows when theyll stop
The whole thing reminds of last winters protests when Ukraine imports made farmers angry - but now with bad harvests animal diseases and slow govt response‚ things got worse. France - EUs biggest farm producer - cant find support from other countries to stop the South American deal
