France has accused President Jair Bolsonaro of having lied to French leader Emmanuel Macron and says it now opposes a trade deal with the South American bloc Mercosur because of his environmental back-pedalling.
A statement from the Elysee Palace accused Mr Bolsonaro of failing to respect his “commitments on the climate” and of failing to protect biodiversity.
The statement said that Mr Macron “can only note that President Bolsonaro lied to him”.
The angry language follows a spat on Twitter between the two leaders, after Mr Macron angered Mr Bolsonaro by calling on G7 nations to act for the Amazon being ravaged by wildfires.
Mr Bolsonaro is known to favour economic development of the Amazon region.
