Farmers’ convoys head for Paris to restart protest movement

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PARIS (Reuters) – Convoys of farmers set off on Sunday to try to block roads around Paris in protest against what they say is unfair competition from overseas and excessive regulation.

Farmers from France, the European Union’s biggest agricultural producer, led European-wide protests at the start of 2024, but demonstrations fizzled out as the year went on.

However, a move last month by the EU and South American nations in the Mercosur bloc to announce an agreement in principle on a free trade deal has given new impetus to French farmers opposed to the Mercosur deal.

French farmers also remain unhappy about regulation which they say is hitting their profits. Farming trade union officials are due to meet French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Jan. 13 to express their concerns.

“They don’t understand the level of misery and distress that farmers are going through at the moment,” Amelie Rebiere, vice-president of the Co-ordination Rurale farming trade union, told BFM TV.

Those who back the EU’s Mercosur deal, such as Germany, say it offers a way to reduce reliance on trade with China, and insulates EU nations from the impact of trade tariffs being threatened by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

Nevertheless, many European farmers – often led by those from France – have repeatedly protested against the EU-Mercosur deal, arguing it would lead to cheap imports of South American commodities, notably beef, that do not meet EU safety standards.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Elizabeth Pineau, Manuel Ausloos, Noemie Olive, Benoit Tessier. Editing by Mark Potter)