Watch: Joseph Muscat Warns Food Will Be More Expensive If Protesting Farmers Get Their Way
Farmers around Europe, including Malta, are up in arms over free trade deals which they warn are undermining their livelihoods… but Joseph Muscat has a different interpretation of events.
In an interview on F Living yesterday, the former Prime Minister offered his take on farmers’ concerns that a proposed trade deal between the EU and South America’s Mercosur trading bloc could lead to unfair competition.
However, Muscat took a neoliberal approach to the controversy.
“The EU spends most of its budget on agriculture,” Muscat said. “What the French farmers and others are saying is that, for example, the Maltese shouldn’t be allowed to buy food at cheaper prices from outside the EU but they must buy it from France at higher prices.”
“Then Maltese people will have to buy food at a higher price, which leads to a cost of living problem. Things shouldn’t be taken at face value.”
Muscat made his comments a day before Maltese farmers took to the streets today in a major wide-ranging protest. Maltese farmers have warned of several issues that they believe amount to unfair treatment, including EU free trade deals with third countries that they believe will render their products uncompetitive.
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Michael Caruana, the Maltese potato farmer who had gone internationally viral back in 2013, told a crowd that farmers disagree with proposed EU laws that will allow third countries to sell their produce inside Europe.
Do you think the EU should sign free trade deals with third countries?
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