Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday (June 5) urged his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to support a long-delayed trade deal between the European Union and the South American bloc Mercosur. "I will not leave the Mercosur presidency without having concluded the trade deal," Lula told a press conference alongside Macron in Paris, referring to the pro-tempore presidency of the bloc he holds for the second half of 2025. "Open your heart a bit to the possibility of concluding this deal with our dear Mercosur," Lula told Macron. French and Spanish farmers warned on Wednesday that a flood of imports under planned European Union trade agreements with South American bloc Mercosur and Ukraine risked severely undermining European agriculture. Macron, a strong critic of the agreement in its current form, which was finalized in December but still needs approval from member states, insisted that the text for the deal should be improved. "We want to open up, we want more trade, but we have to respect our farmers and respect the coherence of our ambitions," Macron said. Asked about the situation in Ukraine, Macron said Brazil, India and China should put pressure on Russia to end the war. On Gaza, Macron said his government was still working on obtaining a ceasefire, while Lula called Israel's operation in the Strip a "genocide".
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