PARIS — France will reject the trade deal between the EU and South American countries of the Mercosur bloc at a key vote on Friday in Brussels.
“France has decided to vote against the signing of the agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur countries,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote in a social media post on X on Thursday, describing the signing of the agreement as “not the end of the story.”
“I will continue to fight for the full and concrete implementation of the commitments obtained from the European Commission and to protect our farmers,” Macron said, adding that “the economic benefits of the EU-Mercosur agreement will be limited for French and European growth.”
An Elysée official said Macron and the government had concluded there is “unanimous political rejection” of the trade deal in France and “the benefits of the agreement are not such that they would justify putting agricultural sectors at risk.”
The agreement has long been opposed across the political spectrum in France and faced furious pushback from farmers. Tractors again rolled into Paris to protest the deal on Thursday, rallying in front of the National Assembly, the country’s lower chamber.
France welcomed the EU’s recent moves to make the deal more palatable — which include increased agricultural safeguards and fresh funding pledges in the bloc’s long-term budget — but stressed that those measures are yet to be finalized and enter into force.
The announcement comes hours before a key vote by member countries on the deal.
Alongside Poland, France has been the deal’s fiercest critic — but those countries lack the numbers to stall it on Friday, especially if Italy backs it.
To approve the accord, which has been over two decades in the making and would create a free-trade zone spanning more than 700 million people, a qualified majority of 15 of the EU’s 27 countries representing 65 percent of the bloc’s population need to get behind it.
The Elysée official made no mention of a scenario in which the deal could be rejected tomorrow by a so-called “blocking minority” of countries and said the outcome of the vote could be foreseen “quite clearly.”
If the deal is approved, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will fly to Paraguay to sign the accord as next week. The Mercosur bloc’s other members are Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
The same Elysée official said that the trade deal should not be provisionally implemented until the European Parliament has given its nod.
This story has been updated.
