“99% of us do not sell meat from Mercosur,” assures Michel-Édouard Leclerc | EUROtoday

Mlower than a 12 months after a historic mobilization and after a “rotten summer” marked by poor harvests and an outbreak of rising animal ailments, the agricultural unions introduced out the tractors and entered, this Monday, their second week of mobilization. They are protesting, specifically, in opposition to the EU-Mercosur settlement, which plans to remove most customs duties between the European Union and South American nations.

An settlement which additionally doesn’t fulfill Michel-Édouard Leclerc, president of the strategic committee of E. Leclerc. For him, the settlement “is not completed and must not be signed,” he introduced to the RTL-M6-Le Figaro-Public Senate Grand Jury, this Sunday, November 24. “The French and European administration are fighting to ensure that our farmers respect standards, but we are not asking for the reciprocity clause. So it’s not a good deal,” he mentioned.

ALSO READ Mercosur: the European Commission lifts the veil on the negotiationAccording to him, as a primary step, Mercosur nations needs to be required to adjust to EU requirements. “This is what all agricultural unions are asking for and we want to raise our voice to this demand,” he mentioned.

Do not “close the door” to South America

However, the president of the strategic committee of E. Leclerc affirms that we should not completely shut the door to the nations of South America. “I am for international exchange. We must not forbid ourselves from products from there,” he continues, taking the instance of Chilean wines. “On the other hand, we need traceability. We want mirror clauses. We must state the conditions under which we do not take such an item. […] Our food industry […] must tell us in processed products where their products come from. »

ALSO READ “Mercosur is not the problem of French agriculture”
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Michel-Édouard Leclerc additionally affirmed that his supermarkets don’t promote meat from South America. “99% of us do not sell meat from Mercosur, at least not on our initiative,” he assured. “Out of 5,700 private label processed products, we found four pieces of chicken that could have come from Mercosur in five years. »

For its part, Carrefour has undertaken, in a letter addressed to the majority agricultural union FNSEA, to “not market any meat from Mercosur”.