French PM Attal promises new price law to appease angry farmers
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00:00 It's the latest attempt by the French government to ease tensions with angry farmers.
00:04 A new agriculture bill outlined by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Wednesday.
00:09 "We've heard the farmers' appeal. We've made commitments and we're in the process of keeping
00:14 them. This is just the beginning of a new page that we're writing together with them."
00:18 The bill aims to appease farmers following crippling nationwide protests last month
00:24 over low wholesale prices, burdensome environmental rules and competition from outside the EU.
00:30 The French government has said it has already paid several million euros in emergency aid
00:35 and will create a new basis for negotiations between producers and wholesalers to improve
00:40 farmers' incomes and will make it easier for farmers to get temporary visas for foreign seasonal workers.
00:46 "The draft agricultural policy law that the minister will present in detail
00:52 recognises in black and white in the law our objective of agricultural and food sovereignty
00:57 and places agriculture among the nation's fundamental interests in the same way as our
01:01 security or national defence."
01:03 The announcement comes just days before France's national agriculture show,
01:10 widely regarded as the deadline for the government to meet farmers' demands.
01:14 Some resumed action on Wednesday by blockading a stretcher motorway in the south of France.
01:20 While two farmers' unions have announced they will lead a group of tractors to the
01:24 agriculture show in Paris, ahead of French President Emmanuel Macron's visit this weekend.