FRANCE on Wednesday officialized a ban on food imports containing traces of five pesticides currently banned in the EU, a move aimed at easing farmers’ opposition to the Mercosur trade deal with four South American nations.
France’s influential farming lobbies are pushing the government to block the Mercosur accord, which is being discussed by the bloc’s agriculture ministers in Brussels at an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday.
The five substances targeted include the fungicides mancozebe, thiophanate-methyl, carbendazim and benomyl, used on produce ranging from avocados and mangos to wheat and soybeans. — AFP