Brussels, 25/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - On the sidelines of the 12th round of talks for the transatlantic trade and investment partnership agreement (TTIP) this week in Brussels, the EU agricultural cooperatives and associations, brought together under the banner of Copa-Cogeca, warned on Wednesday 24 February of the lack of progress in lifting non-tariff barriers and in cutting red tape.
This is particularly the case in the fruit and vegetable sector, where very few European products can enter the US market after a pre-clearance procedure. It is also the case in the dairy sector, where European products are confronted with big obstacles when trying to market Grade A milk products on the US market. “It is crucial to remove these as well as get a balanced deal on tariff cuts to open markets if the talks are to be really ambitious”, said Copa-Cogeca Secretary General Pekka Pesonen.
Pesonen also draws attention to the current crisis situation hitting the EU's agricultural markets, while warning that “protectionism is not the answer”.
As regards the tariff offer, Copa-Cogeca says there is a need to ensure that tariff cuts in the revised market access offers are balanced. These were exchanged at the Miami round in October and now cover 97% of tariff lines, with the remaining 3% (covering sensitive agricultural sectors such as beef, poultry and pigmeat) being put in an “other treatment” category.
Copa-Cogeca says that potential opportunities for EU agriculture as a result of TTIP would be in wine, some cheeses, olive oil and processed meat, but the opportunities will not be so good for the livestock sector.
In addition, Copa-Cogeca says that the big drop in oil prices on global energy markets has had downward pressure on commodity prices but it has not resulted in a proportional drop in the price of mineral fertilizers along the entire chain. Copa-Cogeca states that the US fertilizer industry could therefore enjoy full access to the European market through the TTIP talks, to the benefit of EU farmers. However, Copa-Cogeca is concerned about implementation of the US Webb-Pomerene Act, which exempts US nitrogen fertiliser exporters from US anti-trust law. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)