San Francisco Frontiers - French farmers rage against EU-Mercosur trade deal

Dozens of tractors arrived before dawn and drove through Paris, some pausing at the Eiffel Tower and others at the Arc de Triomphe, in a protest organised by the Rural Confederation union.

"We said we'd come up to Paris -- here we are," said Ludovic Ducloux, co-leader of one of the union's chapters.

One of the tractors bore the message "No to Mercosur", referring to the deal with the bloc comprising Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.

The deal would create one of the world's biggest free-trade areas and help the 27-nation European Union export more vehicles, machinery, wines and spirits to Latin America.

EU member states are expected to vote to give the text the final go-ahead on Friday, paving the way for a formal signature next week.

Farmers fear being undercut by a flow of cheaper goods from agricultural giant Brazil and its neighbours.

"We're not here to cause trouble," Damien Cornier, a 49-year-old farmer from the northwest Eure region, told AFP.

"We just want to work and make a living from our profession."

- Tractors blocked -

Surrounded by police, farmers demonstrated in front of French parliament's lower house, heckling the National Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivet when she came out to meet with them.

She and the head of the upper-house Senate, Gerard Larcher, then met the farmers' union representatives.

Arnaud Rousseau, the head of the main FNSEA union, afterwards said he had demanded the French legislature debate new measures to help the country's farmers.

Unions have called for more protests in front of the EU Parliament building in the French city of Strasbourg on January 20 if the deal is signed.

There were 100 tractors in the Paris region, the interior ministry told AFP earlier on Thursday, but "most are blocked at the gates of the capital".

It later said 670 protesters were in the capital.

In another protest near the southwestern city of Bordeaux, about 40 farm vehicles blocked access to a fuel depot, said local officials.

Farmers are also upset over a government decision to cull cows in response to the spread of nodular dermatitis, a bovine sickness widely known as lumpy skin disease.

- Ireland against deal -

Belgian farmers have also staged mass protests against the trade deal, rolling some 1,000 tractors into Brussels in December.

More than 25 years in the making, the Mercosur accord would boost trade between the European Union and the bloc including Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.

Plans to seal the deal at a gathering in Brazil on December 20 ran into a late roadblock as heavyweights Italy and France demanded a postponement over concerns for the farming sector.

Ireland said Thursday that it would vote against the trade deal.

Germany and Spain are however strongly in favour of the agreement, believing it will provide a welcome boost to their industries, hampered by Chinese competition and tariffs in the United States.

But Italy hailed the benefits of the agreement on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani saying the country had "always supported the conclusion of the deal".

burs-ah/jj

H.King--SFF