By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union could approve its planned trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur before summer, but it has not yet fixed a date to do so, EU agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen told Reuters on Thursday.

“It could be before summer,” Hansen said in an interview.

EU nations still need to approve the deal, which was finalised in December but has faced opposition from members including France, which argues that the pact would hurt European farmers who face stricter norms and regulations than their South American peers.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva discussed their differences on the pact at a meeting in Paris on Thursday. Macron said the text could be improved with the insertion of mirror clauses.

France has previously argued for the insertion of an emergency break clause to restrict imports if a sudden surge in imports destabilises certain EU markets.

“This would indeed require that we go back to the table and reopen. I don’t think that this would be helpful in this situation,” Hansen said of the idea of resuming negotiations with Mercosur countries to add new safeguards to the deal.

“I see from many different parts of the agriculture and food sector, they are really looking for having these new opportunities,” he added.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett, editing by Gus Trompiz and Hugh Lawson)