France steps up campaign against free-trade accords

Date: 16/07/1998

By Myles Neligan and Mark Turner

FRANCE will step up its campaign against the proliferation of EU trade agreements next week by insisting on the exclusion of agricultural products from a proposed EU free-trade pact with South American trading block Mercosur.

French Farm Minister Louis Le Pensec will deliver his demand at a meeting with his EU counterparts next Monday (20 July). The move follows last week's decision by the European Commission to delay formal proposals for a negotiating mandate, after Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler demanded more time to study the planned accord's consequences for EU farmers. “We are in favour of progressive liberalisation, but we are worried about the impact of the deal on EU agricultural markets,” said a French official.

Provisional figures from the Commission suggest that opening the EU to cheap South American exports would cost between 5 and 15 billion ecu in extra measures to subsidise European farmers. German Farm Minister Jochen Borchert is expected to support Le Pensec's demands, arguing that the proposed deal is incompatible with the ongoing reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.

The outcome of the debate is widely seen as a test case for the future of European free-trade agreements and an early indication of the stance the EU will take in the World Trade Organisation farm talks which are due to begin next year.

Mercosur would almost certainly reject a deal excluding farm products.