PARIS — The freshly sealed trade deal between the EU and Australia is already triggering a backlash in France, putting Emmanuel Macron’s government in a tricky position on trade once again.
After failing to block the EU’s deal with the South American Mercosur bloc in January despite years of vocal opposition, Paris is backing the new agreement with Australia even though it is facing mounting pressure from farmers and the political opposition to fight it.
France’s influential FNSEA farm lobby and the Interbev federation of cattle farmers have already come out against the deal, with FNSEA slamming it as “Mercosur II.”
“We want France to block this agreement,” said cattle farmer Patrick Bénézit, vice president of FNSEA, slamming European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for sealing the deal and the French government for not opposing it.
“We know how she [von der Leyen] functions, nothing surprises us anymore: What surprises us is the lack of political response, particularly from governments,” he added.
In a statement to POLITICO on Wednesday, Trade Minister Nicolas Forissier said “the EU–Australia agreement is a balanced and demanding partnership” and announced he would travel to Australia at the end of April with a delegation of French small businesses.
His comment breaks the silence of the French government on the trade deal, which von der Leyen signed in Canberra on Tuesday.
“We are killing European agriculture,” said Manon Aubry, an MEP from Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left France Unbowed Party, calling the deal “a scandal” and announcing she would explore all tools to stop it, including an action before the Court of Justice of the EU.
Familiar fights
The impact of the deal, which would gradually allow 30,600 metric tons of Australian beef into Europe each year, up from the current 3,389 tons, will likely be smaller than that of the Mercosur pact. Until now it has largely been below the radar of France’s trade-skeptic public opinion.
To reassure farmers and EU countries, the European Commission has foreseen a safeguard mechanism that could be triggered “in case of an unforeseen and harmful surge in imports or an undue decrease in prices for EU producers.”
Commission officials are nevertheless bracing for a massive backlash in France, having fought with Paris for years over Mercosur.
“We will have the same controversies. It ticks all the boxes,” said one high-ranking Commission official, mentioning the concerns of French farmers about beef imported from more than 10,000 kilometers away as one common aspect of the two deals.
A second Commission official, who like others in this story was granted anonymity to speak freely, was also preparing for the worst.
“We will have to explain, to explain, and to explain again to try to debunk the baseless attacks, and sometimes even the lies, unfortunately, that characterized the campaign against the ratification of the agreement with the Mercosur countries in France,” the official said.
French MEP Céline Imart from the center-right European People’s Party (from which von der Leyen also hails) was also worried about the effects of the EU-Australia deal.
“We are not concerned by a single agreement, but by the cumulative effect of these agreements; by [importing] volumes that are presented as being under control, but which, when added up, permanently weaken sectors that are already under tension,” she said.
Back in 2021, France called for negotiations on the deal to be halted after the former Australian government ditched a French contract to build diesel-electric submarines and instead formed a pact with Britain and the United States to acquire nuclear-powered vessels.
But since center-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took office in 2022, Franco-Australian relations have been on the mend and France hasn’t spoken publicly against the agreement.
Even some people who recognize the merits of the Australia and the Mercosur deals are hesitant to do so on the record. A French lawmaker from Macron’s ranks said he would not dare defend the Australian deal in public.
“I can’t imagine myself defending free trade deals on radio or TV,” the lawmaker said, explaining that “in France, trade has become a political object on which there can be no rational debate anymore.”
Europa Monitor is a seasoned News Editor with over a decade of experience in journalism. Known for his editorial expertise and commitment to accuracy, Europa Monitor leads teams to deliver high-quality news content.
