EU Commission to end trade deal talks with Mercosur countries, France says

French President Emmanuel Macron has insisted to the European Commission that it was impossible to conclude trade deal negotiations with South America's Mercosur bloc and understands the EU has put an end to the talks, his office said on Monday. Farmers have staged massive protests in France over the past few weeks, angry about rising costs and cheap imports, following similar action in other European countries, including Germany and Poland.

French President Emmanuel Macron has insisted to the European Commission that it was impossible to conclude trade deal negotiations with South America's Mercosur bloc and understands the EU has put an end to the talks, his office said on Monday.

Farmers have staged massive protests in France over the past few weeks, angry about rising costs and cheap imports, following similar action in other European countries, including Germany and Poland. Farmers in France have in particular objected to ongoing talks on a trade deal between the EU and Mercosur nations, which they say would allow cheap food imports that do not meet strict EU standards.

"(Macron) has very firmly reiterated to the Commission the fact it was impossible to conclude talks in these conditions," a French presidential adviser told reporters in a briefing ahead of Thursday's EU summit. The adviser added that the EU understood it was impossible to reach a deal in this context and that EU talks with Mercosur countries had been stopped.

"The European Commission had understood it was impossible to reach a deal in this context. I think it has seen the situation in France, in Germany, in Poland, in the Netherlands, across Europe," he said. "It is our understanding it has instructed its negotiators to put an end to the negotiation session underway in Brazil and in particular cancel the visit of the Commission's vice-president that had been envisaged in view of a conclusion," he added.

Brazil's foreign ministry declined to comment on Macron's statements. But a ministry source said that the trade negotiations between Mercosur and the EU "are not carried out with individual countries or presidents, but between Mercosur and the European Commission."

EU and Mercosur trade negotiators met in Brasilia for two days last week but reported "limited progress" according to one diplomat involved in the talks, who was sceptical that the deal could be concluded before the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial next month as some hoped. "Negotiations are proceeding slowly but in the right direction. But it will take more time," another diplomat told Reuters.