France tightens food import checks amid trade protests

France has announced tighter checks on food imports to help defuse anger among farmers protesting “unfair competition” linked to a planned EU trade deal with the South American Mercosur bloc.

The measures, the French government said, are intended to ensure imported food complies with EU standards, as pressure intensifies ahead of an expected vote by EU member states on whether to ratify the Mercosur agreement in the coming days.

On Sunday 4 January, the French government said it was “tightening checks on several food imports in a bid to ease concerns of farmers who have been protesting at what they say is unfair competition from countries with looser regulations”.

See also: French farmers rebel over disease policy and trade concerns

France’s agriculture minister Annie Genevard said on X:

“I’ve decided to ban food products containing residues of substances prohibited in the European Union. We can no longer accept this injustice towards our farmers.”

In response, France’s biggest farming union, the FNSEA, posted on X:

“We have been making this demand for a long time. It is now up to the European Commission to take it up: we will not let up the pressure.

“We will be uncompromising in ensuring that the necessary enforcement forces are in place. Without them, nothing concrete will happen.”

French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu followed up with an open letter to farmers pledging to eliminate “double standards” and restore “economic fairness”, promising simplified procedures, reduced regulatory burdens and “massively” reinforced import controls.

In his letter, Mr Lecornu said it was “no longer acceptable to tolerate the presence of substances banned in France in imported products entering our market”.

As a first step, he said government decrees would be issued this week to suspend imports of South American food products, including avocados and apples, containing residues of five substances already banned in Europe.

Widespread protests

Protests have intensified across France and Belgium in recent weeks, with thousands of farmers bringing tractors to Brussels to oppose the Mercosur deal, warning of “unfair competition” from imports produced under less stringent standards.

Analysts from the AHDB have warned the Mercosur agreement could affect UK farmers by increasing competitive pressure on British beef and poultry exports, as expanded tariff-free access for South American producers to the EU market may reduce demand for UK products.

Critics also fear such competition could push down prices and standards as markets adjust.