PARIS (AP) — French farmers protested Tuesday against a trade deal that would increase agricultural imports from South America, saying it hurt their livelihoods.
The European Union and the Mercosur trade bloc, composed of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia, reached an initial agreement in 2019, but negotiations stumbled due to opposition from farmers, and some European governments, leading to sweeping rallies where they particularly expressed worry about the use of pesticides in South American produce.
Tuesday's protest in Aurillac, in southern France, was the start of a fresh wave expected to spread among the European agricultural community amid concern that the deal could be finalized at the G20 summit in Brazil on Nov. 18-19 despite the French minister of agriculture, Annie Genevard, saying it was “highly unlikely."
A group of more than 600 French lawmakers also published an open letter in Le Monde, telling the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the conditions for adopting an agreement with the Mercosur bloc “have not been met."
Last week, French protesters blocked the state building in the western commune of Niort, while on Monday, the Copa-Cogeca European farmers’ group sent a letter to von der Leyen, urging her to reject the Mercosur deal and adopt “a coherent trade policy”
Meanwhile, France's three biggest farming unions have vowed action: The FNSEA, France’s largest, has called for nationwide protests once the winter sowing season ends in mid-November. Coordination Rurale has promised “an agricultural revolt” starting on Nov. 19 in Auch and Agen, two cities in the Southwest of France, while the Confédération Paysanne, the third-largest union, known for its anti-globalization stance, is also planning its move against “free trade agreements.”
Farmers in Belgium have also called for demonstrations close to the EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday.
European farmers' apprehensions stem from what they say are the too-strict EU environmental regulations they follow while the Mercosur deal could flood the market with imports from South America which are produced under lower environmental and labor standards, according to Véronique Le Floc’h, the president of Coordination Rurale, France’s second-largest farmers’ union.
“The anger hasn’t gone away. It’s still there, and, in fact, our worries have grown,” said Le Floc'h whose organization has been linked to France's far-right party National Rally. “If the Mercosur agreement is signed, it will spell the end of our agriculture,” she said.
Genevard, the agriculture minister, reiterated the government’s opposition to the deal on Tuesday. In an interview with TF1, she said: “We don’t want this agreement because it’s harmful. It will bring in products, including substances banned in Europe, at the cost of deforestation. It will unfairly compete with our domestic production.”
But Le Floc’h was not convinced.
“When the minister says the agreement won’t be signed, she’s either naive or thinks we are,” she said. “Why should we believe her when so many countries are in favor of it?”
In March, French President Emmanuel Macron called the deal “terrible” and “outdated." Negotiations began on June 28, 1999, but have taken a long, torturous path since.
Macron opposes any agreement as long as South American producers fail to adhere to the same environmental and health standards as Europeans.
FILE- Farmers sit on a highway after spending the night at a barricade in Aix-en-Provence, southern France, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)
FILE- A farmer drives his tractor during a protest, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla, File)
FILE- Gendarmes with armored vehicles face farmers and their tractors blocking a highway, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024 in Chilly-Mazarin, south of Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)
FILE- Farmers warm themselves around a bonfire as they block a highway with their tractors in Ourdy, south of Paris, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday named Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead the Department of Labor in his second administration, elevating a Republican congresswoman who has strong support from unions in her district but lost reelection in November.
Chavez-DeRemer will have to be confirmed by the Senate, which will be under Republican control when Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025, and can formally send nominations to Capitol Hill.
Here are things to know about the labor secretary-designate, the agency she would lead if she wins Senate approval and how she could matter to Trump's encore presidency.
Chavez-DeRemer is a one-term congresswoman, having lost reelection in her competitive Oregon district earlier this month. But in her short stint on Capitol Hill she has established a clear record on workers' rights and organized labor issues that belie the Republican Party's usual alliances with business interests.
She was an enthusiastic back of the PRO Act, legislation that would make it easier to unionize on a federal level. The bill, one of Democratic President Joe Biden's top legislative priorities, passed the House during Biden's first two years in office, when Democrats controlled the chamber. But it never had a chance of attracting enough Republican senators to reach the 60 votes required to avoid a filibuster in the Senate.
Chavez-DeRemer also co-sponsored another piece of legislation that would protect public-sector workers from having their Social Security benefits docked because of government pension benefits. That proposal also has lingered for a lack of GOP support.
Chavez-DeRemer may give labor plenty to like, but union leaders are not necessarily cheering yet. Many of them still do not trust Trump.
The president-elect certainly has styled himself as a friend of the working class. His bond with blue-collar, non-college educated Americans is a core part of his political identity and helped him chip away at Democrats' historical electoral advantage in households with unionized workers.
But he was also the president who chose business-friendly appointees to the National Labor Relations Board during his 2017-21 term and generally has backed policies that would make it harder for workers to unionize. He criticized union bosses on the campaign trail, and at one point suggested members of the United Auto Workers should not pay their dues. His administration did expand overtime eligibility rules, but not nearly as much as Democrats wanted, and a Trump-appointed judge has since struck down the Biden administration's more generous overtime rules.
And though Trump distanced himself from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 during the campaign, he has since his victory warmed to some of the people involved in that conservative blueprint that, broadly speaking, would tilt power in the workplace even more toward employers and corporations. Among other ideas, the plan also would curb enforcement of workplace safety regulations.
After Trump's announcement Friday, National Education Association President Becky Pringle lauded Chavez-DeRemer's House record but sounded a note of caution.
“Educators and working families across the nation will be watching ... as she moves through the confirmation process,” Pringle said in a statement, “and hope to hear a pledge from her to continue to stand up for workers and students as her record suggests, not blind loyalty to the Project 2025 agenda.”
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler praised Chavez-DeRemer’s “pro-labor record in Congress,” but said “it remains to be seen what she will be permitted to do as Secretary of Labor in an administration with a dramatically anti-worker agenda.”
Labor is another executive department that often operates away from the spotlight. But Trump's emphasis on the working class could intensify attention on the department, especially in an administration replete with tremendously wealthy leaders, including the president-elect.
Trump took implicit aim at the department's historically uncontroversial role of maintaining labor statistics, arguing that Biden's administration manipulated calculations of unemployment and the workforce.
If she is confirmed, Chavez-DeRemer could find herself standing between the nonpartisan bureaucrats at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a president with strong opinions about government stats and what they say about the state of the economy — and the White House's stewardship. Her handling of overtime rules also would be scrutinized, and she could find herself pulled into whatever becomes of Trump's promise to launch the largest deportation force in U.S. history, potentially pitting Trump's administration against economic sectors and companies that depend heavily on immigrant labor.
Chavez-DeRemer was the first Republican woman elected to Congress from Oregon. She joins Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, as the second Latino pick for Trump's second Cabinet. Trump's first labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, also was Latino.
FILE - Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., accompanied by Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., left, and House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., right, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
