Thousands of farmers are to take to the streets of Brussels to protest European Union plans for a trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur and reforming agricultural subsidies.
Driving hundreds of tractors, the demonstrators are today expected to reach the European quarter of the Belgian capital around noon, when EU leaders will be locked in a high-stakes summit.
Farmers, particularly in France, worry the Mercosur deal – which will be discussed at the EU leaders meeting – will see them undercut by a flow of cheaper goods from agricultural giant Brazil and its neighbours.
They also oppose plans put forward by the European Commission to overhaul the 27-nation bloc’s huge farming subsidies, fearing less money will flow their way.
Walloon Agricultural Federation (FWA) said Brussels’ plans to slash the subsidies scheme by 20 percent while pushing ahead with the Mercosur deal were “totally unacceptable”.
FWA will be among more than 40 national farming groups represented at the demonstration. Pan-European agriculture lobby group Copa-Cogeca said it expected about 10,000 people to show up.
The EU-Mercosur pact would create the world’s biggest free-trade area and help the EU to export more vehicles, machinery, wines and spirits to Latin America at a time of global trade tensions.
But farmers lament it would also facilitate the entry into Europe of beef, sugar, rice, honey and soybeans produced by their less-regulated South American counterparts.
EU plans to seal the agreement by the end of this week were thrown into disarray Wednesday after Italy joined fellow heavyweight France in seeking a delay.
Paris and Rome have been calling for more robust safeguard clauses, tighter import controls and more stringent standards for Mercosur producers.
The EC has proposed some measures that go in that direction but Hugues Falys of Belgian union Fugea said farmers had “little confidence” in those.
“Anger in rural areas is reaching unprecedented levels,” added French agricultural union Confederation Paysanne.
The farmers’ protests will come the day after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio warned that if an EU- Mercosur trade deal is not signed as planned on December 20, it will not happen at all on his watch.
Lula recalled that the deal had been 26 years in the making and said his patience had run out.
The deal is due to be inked in southern Brazil’s Foz de Iguacu — one of the largest waterfall systems in the world with hundreds of cascades stretching across the border with Argentina.
“It’s difficult because Italy and France don’t want to go ahead, due to internal political problems,” Lula told his last cabinet meeting of the year.
“I’ve already warned them: If we don’t do it now, Brazil won’t make any more agreements while I’m President.”
Lula said Brazil and the Mercosur bloc had worked hard to accept the deal and “send a message at a time when you have a US president trying to weaken multilateralism.”
He argued the deal was “more favourable to them than to us.
“So I’m going to Foz do Iguacu in the hope that they say ‘yes’ and don’t say ‘no’,” he added.
“But, even if they say no, we will be tough with them going forward, because we have given in on everything that diplomacy could reasonably concede.”
