"In the current geopolitical context, all participants agree on the importance of diversifying trade partnerships," said a spokesperson for the office of Benjamin Haddad, Minister Delegate for Europe.
Despite previous reservations, France held a meeting with 10 EU countries to discuss a possible trade deal with the South American bloc Mercosur, a day after the United States unleashed a global trade war, signaling that it could be a way for the bloc to offset the impact of U.S. tariffs on European exports.
The meeting brought together France and other countries that had led the opposition to the agreement, which was 20 years in the making and caused deep divisions in Europe, where farmers fear unfair competition for agricultural products such as beef and grain from countries with less stringent environmental standards.
The office of Minister Delegate for Europe Benjamin Haddad said he had organized a video conference with other EU countries in which he championed the idea of including an automatic escape clause for agricultural products in the agreement.
"In the current geopolitical context, all participants agree on the importance of diversifying trade partnerships," a spokesperson for Haddad's office told Reuters .
"However, they cannot accept an unbalanced agreement that fails to protect their farmers," the official added.
The clause, a kind of emergency pause to restrict imports, would be triggered in the event of a sudden surge in imports that destabilized certain EU markets. "The agreement already includes a general clause, but it's too difficult to activate and would be of no use in a crisis," the official said.
The meeting is a sign that EU countries that opposed the agreement negotiated by the European Commission last year are seeking a constructive compromise with the EU executive, at a time when new markets in Latin America could provide a welcome alternative to the United States for European exporters.
France had received support from the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Poland, and Hungary, among other countries, in its opposition to the agreement with the group of South American nations that includes agricultural powers Brazil and Argentina, as well as Uruguay and Paraguay.
(Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Aurora Ellis; Editing by Daniela Desantis)
