Brussels, 15/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - In its recommendation to the European Commission on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks, the European Parliament's agriculture committee says that the main priority must be to achieve an ambitious, balanced deal in negotiations on the agricultural sector. However, the opinion, adopted by 27 votes to 18 on Tuesday 14 April, states that the agriculture sector “must not be used as a bargaining chip to secure access to the US market for other sectors”.
The committee recommends the strict preservation of current and future EU standards in areas of food safety, consumer protection, human health, animal and plant health, animal welfare and environmental protection as defined in EU law. It must also be ensured that the fundamental EU values, including the precautionary principle and sustainable agriculture, are respected and that citizens can continue to have confidence in the traceability and labelling of products on the EU market.
MEPs underline that every effort must be made to ensure that the outcome of the agriculture negotiations reflect both the offensive and defensive interests of the EU's agriculture sector, in terms of the removal or reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers (including sanitary and phytosanitary standards and procedures). They recommend: - a strong position for high-quality European products so that EU producers can benefit from better access to the US market; - fair competition conditions under which products and sectors where direct or indirect competition would expose EU agricultural producers to too severe pressure be considered as sensitive.
All possible solutions should be envisaged for dealing with all sensitive products, for example, reducing customs duties and limited tariff quotas. Appropriate legal protection must also be assured for EU geographical indications and high-quality European products on the US market and measures put in place to curb mis-use of indications and misleading information and practices. MEPs stress that guarantees must be obtained on labelling, traceability and genuine origin of agricultural products. Lastly, the committee calls on the Commission to establish a modern and improved ISDS mechanism in TTIP that does not undermine the sovereign rights of the EU, the member states or the regional and local authorities. (Lionel Changeur)