France to continue to oppose EU-Mercosur deal: Macron

PARIS

French President Emmanuel Macron has said he would "continue to oppose" a proposed blockbuster trade deal between the European Union and four South American countries after talks with his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei.

Speaking ahead of a new round of protests planned by French farmers opposed to the deal with the Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, Macron said he did "not think" that European Commission chief Ursula Von der Leyen would sign a deal without France.

Von der Leyen, speaking to Brazil's Globo News on the eve of a G20 summit she is attending in Rio de Janeiro, admitted that her European Commission faced "a big task" in getting member countries of the EU and South America's Mercosur bloc on board.

"The devil is always in the details," she said of the South America trade deal.

"We have to include all 27 heads of state and government and member states of the European Union and, of course, on the side of Mercosur. So all partners of Mercosur will also have to be ready to sign," she said.

"So that's always at the very end a big task to overcome," she said. "The final stretch is the most important, but also the most difficult, often."

Macron's Prime Minister Michel Barnier has labeled the Mercosur deal "unacceptable," while his finance minister Antoine Armand has said "all means" will be used "to ensure that Mercosur is not adopted in its current form."

The European Union and the four founding members of Mercosur, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, have been working to make a trade pact between their blocs a reality for 25 years.

Although the contours of a deal were agreed in 2019, some EU countries have blocked it going any further.