Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Enough! say French farmers Date: Sat, 7 Nov 92 19:23:58 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD Enough! say French farmers \BY Sean MacCarthaigh \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT PARIS PARIS - French farmers say they were told when they accepted a deep cut in their government subsidies last year that Europe would stand firm against any further cuts stemming from the GATT global trade talks. "Now we hear that the Americans still want to pressure the Europeans to reduce production and prices," said Thierry Sarazen, who farms 120 acres in the Champagne region north of Reims. "It's just unacceptable; it's not for real!" French farmers, never shy about defending their interests with a combination of attention-grabbing protests and sophisticated political lobbying, once more find themselves at the center of a storm. Washington's announcement this week of plans to slap a 200-percent tariff on European white wines and other products represents far more than a dispute over subsidies on certain oilseeds, which were named as the immediate problem. It is, rather, the latest shot in a global struggle to open up trade in a broad range of goods and services under discussion in the 6-year-old Uruguay Round of talks on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The biggest single obstacle to an agreement that could open the doors to billions of dollars in new trade and help avoid a worldwide recession is Europe's - and especially France's - reluctance to give up huge farm subsidies that distort the world market in agricultural products. In recent years, French farmers have defended their cause with a variety of protests, including spraying manure at Cabinet ministers, blocking highways during peak vacation times and burning hijacked truckloads of live imported sheep. They were back at their tactics again yesterday in the southwestern town of Marmande, where some 200 farmers dumped 100 tons of apples into the streets and blocked a high-speed rail line to protest past decisions to trim their subsidies. Despite such behavior, France's governing class has rallied firmly behind the farmers in the latest dispute with Washington. "If we lay down every time the Americans lift a finger, we will never exist," said Agriculture Minister Jean-Pierre Soisson yesterday. "The Americans only respect people who resist them." Even the Conservative opposition leader, Jacques Chirac, accused the United States of wanting to monopolize the world farm trade. "France must be intransigent in defending its interests," he said. Part of that is pure politics. In no other major industrial power does agriculture play as large a role as in France. It has more farmland - 76 million acres - than any other European Community nation and accounts for 23 percent of EC farm output. That remains true even though the number of people farming French land has dropped from 6 million to 2 million over the past 30 years and what was once the nation's most powerful and disciplined political lobby has lost much of its clout. But because President Francois Mitterrand's struggling Socialist Party is so desperate for votes in general elections next March, the government feels it has no choice but to defend the farmers' interests. Apart from the politics, there is a genuine sympathy for the farmers among the French, who prize their ties with the countryside, whether going there for annual holidays or visiting relatives on the farm. "We've got to convince the Americans that we're defending a rural culture, that France's situation is different from other countries," said Senate President Rene Monory, a small-town native, yesterday. "We're not just defending our economic interests, but the very existence of our farmers." While the rest of the world sees the French farmers as stubborn defenders of an outmoded and uneconomical lifestyle, the farmers feel they have already made more than enough sacrifices. Last year, the EC restructured its subsidies in an effort to accommodate the United States, largely halting the practice of guaranteeing exaggerated prices for most farm products. Instead, farmers now are paid to let their land lie fallow. Mr. Sarazen, who grows cereals, sugar beets and other products on his small farm in the Champagne region, calculates he has already lost about $5,000 a year as a result of the changes. "But apart from the loss in money, what's intolerable for the farmers of this region is the fact that people are to be paid for doing nothing," said the 50-year-old farmer, whose thick rural accent betrayed a wistful, almost nostalgic quiver. "For a farmer to be forced to let his land go fallow is a calculated insult. Psychologically, we can't accept that - not to cultivate the land." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM