Brussels, 24/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's agriculture committee's draft opinion for the international trade committee on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was discussed on Tuesday 24 February (see EUROPE 11256). MEPs highlighted the need to respect the EU standards on food safety and human and animal health, the protection of sensitive products (poultry, beef etc.) and the strengthening of the EU's geographical indications.
The agriculture committee's draft opinion was drafted by Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy) and James Nicholson (ECR, United Kingdom). Following contributions in this connection by MEPs, James Nicholson mentioned so-called sensitive sectors such as poultry and beef and said that he did not believe in a levelling downwards but, rather, harmonisation upwards. He said that he was not naive in this regard and believed that agriculture should be part of the TTIP agreement, which was why they needed to defend it. He pointed out that at this stage there had not been any real negotiations between the EU and the US on agriculture but admitted that they were not going to get everything they wanted in this area.
Paolo De Castro highlighted the need to respect transparency in the negotiations. He also emphasised the fact that the trade agreements would not change European regulations on GMOs and hormones, for example. He explained that European exports to the US had increased by 40% over recent years, “an exclusively defensive attitude by the EU would not be in the interest of our products. We also need a line that goes on the offensive”. De Castro said that in the middle of the milk crisis it would be a good thing to shift towards countries requesting European products and were prepared to pay for them.
A European Commission representative tried to reassure MEPs by saying that the EU would be seeking an ambitious and balanced agreement, “no agreement will be allowed to undermine our standards. The TTIP will not be allowed to create a levelling downwards and we will never give up our precautionary principle”. On the question of market access, the EU has both defensive and offensive interests and the European Commission emphasised that the EU had a lot to win from the agricultural chapter in the TTIP. The Commission representative concluded, “we will work towards strengthening European geographical indications”. (Lionel Changeur)