Spain's farmers urge EU to drop Mercosur deal

Spain's farmers have been showing their disdain for the proposed trade deal between the European Union and South America's Mercosur free-trade area.

The Mercosur bloc — which includes Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay — signed a deal with the EU on Friday that opens the door to freer trading between the two sides.

But the deal, which has not yet been ratified and brought into force, would pose great danger to the EU's agricultural sector, Spain's Young Farmers' Association, or ASAJA, said on the weekend at a demonstration against it.

Pedro Barato, ASAJA's president, told the Spanish news agency Agencia EFE the deal looks to have been drawn up "in haste "and "without taking into account the interests of producers".

He said Spain's farmers will not "accept any more (trade) agreements in which European agriculture is the paymaster of other interests".

Members of the Coordination of Agricultural and Livestock Organizations, or COAG, were also at demonstrations on the weekend where COAG President Miguel Padilla called the deal "absolutely outrageous".

The Euractiv news website quoted him as saying Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was cheerleading a deal that would see Spain as "the main loser".

Padilla said the country's citrus fruit farmers would be especially hard hit as cheaper imports flood into the EU from South America. Producers of chicken, beef, pork, sugar, and rice also stand to lose out, he added.

Other major farming organizations, including the Union of Small Farmers, the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organizations, and the General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives, have also taken part in demonstrations and voiced their opposition to the deal, which they say will make EU farmers uncompetitive against South American farmers who are subject to less stringent regulations.

Spain's government, however, has said the deal will bring more benefits than problems.

As it was inked on Friday, Sanchez wrote on X: "Today, the European Union has achieved a historic agreement with Mercosur to establish an unprecedented economic bridge between Europe and Latin America."

Spain's Agriculture Minister Luis Planas told the Associated Press the deal off ers "a great economic opportunity for the agricultural sector".

"Spain stands to gain from it," Planas said. "Our agri-food sector will be strengthened by this opening-up to a continent with which we have cultural and linguistic ties."

The EU believes the deal that would create a trading bloc for 730 million people will mean European producers save around 4 billion euros ($4.2 billion) a year in customs duties.

The deal is being supported by the governments of Germany, Spain, and Portugal. But France, Poland, and Italy are looking like they will oppose it.

For the agreement to come into force, it will need the support of at least 15 of the EU's 27 member states.