Farmers enter Paris on tractors in protest at trade deal

French farmers rolled into Paris on tractors Thursday morning in a show of dissent against a free trade deal they fear will create unfair competition.

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 a free trade deal with four South American nations.

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

French farmers protest on the Champs Elysees avenue against the Mercosur trade alliance with South America countries but also against EU farming policy or mass cull of cows ordered to contain the spread of a skin disease Thursday in Paris. AP

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

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

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

Tractors are parked in front of the Arc de Triomphe during a demonstration of French agricultural union Coordination Rurale (CR) as part of a nationwide day of protests and actions called by several farmers unions to push the French government to block the Mercosur trade deal and protest against its handling of the nodular dermatitis (CND) epidemic, in Paris on Thursday. AFP

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, farmer 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.

Agence France-Presse