Tusk: Poland opposes EU-Mercosur deal in current form

Brazil has been pushing to have the EU-Mercosur agreement signed by the end of the month while it holds the presidency of the G20. Advocates of the deal, including the EU's biggest economy Germany, say it will open up more markets for their exports.

Farmers say the agreement with the Mercosur bloc that includes Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay will create unfair competition for EU farmers and food makers as it will allow large imports of products that are not bound by the same strict regulation they face in the EU.

"Poland does not accept, and we are not alone, we will not accept in this form the agreement with the countries of South America, that is the Mercosur group, on free trade," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said before the start of a government meeting.

Polish farmers blocked the Medyka border crossing with Ukraine in protest against the deal on Saturday. They also protested because their demand for Poland to maintain the agricultural tax at the 2023 level in 2024 has not been met.

"The farmers' protest in Medyka has the same goal, for which I have been fighting on various fronts for a long time," Czeslaw Siekierski wrote on X.

"Let me remind you that we said NO to the agreement with the Mercosur countries in the Ministry of Agriculture."

During Saturday's blockade, about 30 people walked along the pedestrian crossing with trucks from Ukraine blocked from entering and only one truck an hour allowed to leave Poland, PAP reported.

This followed large protests in France and in Brussels.

French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated his opposition to a deal with Mercosur as proposed during a visit to Argentina this month.

France, the EU's largest agriculture producer, has been trying to convince other EU members to form a minority bloc against the deal.

The EU-Mercosur deal would allow the entry of an additional 99,000 tons of beef, 190,000 tons of sugar, 180,000 tons of poultry meat, 1 million tons of maize, producers have said.