French farmers launched new protests Tuesday against a proposed deal between the EU and the four South American countries of the Mercosur trade bloc.

The French government is strongly opposed to the deal but protesters want French President Emmanuel Macron to do more to help amid rising discontent over foreign competition. 

The French government is leading resistance against ratification of the trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay that would create the world's largest free-trade zone. 

The new wave of action comes after farmers across Europe, including France, mounted rolling protests last winter over a long list of burdens they say are squeezing revenue.

Dozens of farmers backed by Coordination Rurale (CR), a hard-line farming union, set up a roadblock on the A9 motorway at the southern town of Le Boulou, close to the border with Spain, blocking lorries but allowing cars through, an AFP journalist saw.

"We're going to block the A9, as well as fuel depots, ports and purchasing centres," said Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, a CR representative in the southwest.

"We want to cause chaos and food shortages," he said, adding that the blockade could last several days, pointing to "a river of fruit and vegetables arriving from Spain".

Farmers fear any agreement would open European Union markets to cheaper meat and produce from South American competitors, who are not forced to adhere to strict EU rules on pesticides, hormones, land use and environmental measures. 

He said the agreement had been in the works for several decades and was "based on preconditions that are now obsolete".

📝: The EU has made agriculture very expensive with taxes on carbon emissions, on fuel, on diesel, it has encumbered farmers across the continent with strict rules on pesticides, hormones, GMOs, land use, waste management and more to ensure that groceries are of a high quality, nutritious and don't get people sick.

The adverse side effect of this is that groceries are very expensive compared to non-EU countries. When the EU liberalised trade with Ukraine, hundreds of thousand of farmers across the EU came out to protest unfair competition from Ukraine in the biggest mass unrest Europe has seen.  If the Mercosur deal goes through, the farmers might just topple the EU as a whole. 

At the same time, the EU must find a way to keep the prices of groceries low, while also doubling down on climate insanity and keep farmers and other unions calm. 

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