Farmers enter Paris on tractors in protest at trade deal

PARIS: French farmers rolled into Paris on tractors Thursday in a show of dissent against an EU trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur they fear will create unfair competition, as the government warned against “illegal” protest actions.

Dozens of tractors arrived before dawn and cruised through Paris, with some reaching the Eiffel Tower and others at the Arc de Triomphe, in a protest organised by the Rural Confederation union.

“We said we’d come up to Paris — here we are,” said Ludovic Ducloux, co-head of one of the union’s chapters.

One of them bore the message “No To Mercosur”, referring to the deal with four South American nations.

The deal would create the world’s biggest free-trade area and help the 27-nation EU to export more vehicles, machinery, wines and spirits to Latin America.

But farmers fear being undercut by a flow of cheaper goods from agricultural giant Brazil and its neighbours.

Rural Confederation president Bertrand Venteau told AFP that the farmers intended to peacefully demonstrate at symbolic Parisian sites, even if it meant they ended up in police custody.

A government spokeswoman on Thursday however warned against such “illegal” actions, saying French authorities would “not stand by”.

Blocking a motorway or “attempting to gather in front of the National Assembly with all the symbolism that this entails is once again illegal”, Maud Bregeon told France Info Radio.

In another protest near the southwestern city of Bordeaux, about 40 farm vehicles blocked access to a fuel depot, according to the local authorities.

As well as the trade deal, the farmers are also upset over a government decision to cull cows in response to the spread of nodular dermatitis, a bovine sickness widely known as lumpy skin disease.

At the end of last month, President Emmanuel Macron met farmers to discuss the trade pact and the cull.

During earlier protests, farmers blocked roads, sprayed manure and dumped garbage in front of government offices to force the authorities to review their policy.

Belgian farmers have also staged mass protests against the trade deal, rolling some 1,000 tractors into Brussels in December.