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Brussels moves to placate Paris over South American trade deal

EU proposes protections for agriculture as it aims to finalise agreement with Mercosur bloc in December

Brussels has drawn up political “safeguards” to appease France’s farming lobby and win Paris’s backing for a trade deal with the Mercosur bloc of South American economies.

The EU is targeting final approval for December of the Mercosur deal, which would create a shared market of 700mn consumers by combining the EU with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

Two decades in the making, the agreement won preliminary assent last December as part of a renewed push<