By Sybille de La Hamaide
PARIS, Jan 8 (Reuters) – French farmers blockaded sites in Paris on Thursday in protest against a sweeping trade deal the European Union is poised to sign with South American nations and other local grievances.
Farmers from the Coordination Rurale union had called for protests in Paris amid anger against a free trade agreement between the European Union and South American bloc Mercosur, which they fear may flood the country with cheap food imports, and the way the government is handling a cattle disease.
“We are between resentment and despair. We have a feeling of abandonment, like with Mercosur. We have been abandoned in favour of a space shuttle, an Airbus, or a car,” Stephane Pelletier, the deputy president of the union in Vienne, in central France, told Reuters.
The protest comes days after the European Commission proposed making 45 billion euros of EU funding available earlier to farmers and agreed to cut import duties on some fertilizers in a bid to win over countries wavering in their support of Mercosur.
The deal is backed by countries such as Germany and Spain and the Commission appeared to have won Italy’s backing, meaning it would have the votes needed to approve the trade accord with or without French support. A vote on the deal is expected on Friday.
Farmers are also demanding an end to cow culling prompted by a series of highly contagious lumpy skin disease, which they consider excessive and advocate for vaccination instead.
Dozens of tractors are parked on the Seine bank below the Eiffel Tower and blockading some accesses to the city centre from the Peripherique, such as at Porte d’Auteuil.
They made it to the city centre even though French police had imposed a strict ban.
(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide, Inti Landauro and Camille Raynaud; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Richard Lough)
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