Amid US tariff chaos, France convenes Mercosur meeting with EU partners

Paris | Reuters—Despite previous reservations, France held a meeting with 10 EU countries to discuss a possible trade deal with Latin America’s Mercosur bloc, a day after the United States unleashed a global trade war, signalling it may be a way for the bloc to offset the impact of U.S. tariffs on European exports.

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The meeting brought together France and other countries that had led opposition to the deal, which was 20 years in the making and deeply divisive in Europe where farmers fear unfair competition on agricultural products such as beef and grains from countries with less stringent environmental rules.

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The office of Minister Delegate for Europe Benjamin Haddad said he had organized a video conference with other EU countries in which he defended the idea of including an automatic escape clause on agricultural products in the deal.

“In the current geopolitical context, all participants agree on how important it is to diversify trade partnerships,” a spokesperson from Haddad’s office told Reuters.

“However, they can’t accept an unbalanced deal which does not protect their farmers,” the official added.

The clause, a sort of emergency break to restrict imports, would be triggered in case of a sudden surge in imports that would destabilize certain EU markets. “The deal already includes a general clause but it is too difficult to trigger and would be of no use in case of a crisis,” the official said.

The meeting is a sign that EU countries which had opposed the deal brokered by the European Commission last year are trying to find a constructive compromise with the EU executive, at a time new markets in Latin America could provide a welcome alternative to the U.S. for European exporters.

France had received support from the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Poland and Hungary among others in its opposition to the deal with the group of South American nations that include farming powerhouses Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

—Reporting by Michel Rose

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