Brussels, 29/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - Fourteen members of the European Parliament, including the chair of the committee on agriculture of the European Parliament, Czeslaw Adam Siekierski (EPP, Poland), wrote to the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, on Wednesday 27 April, stressing their concerns regarding the “direction and content” of the trade negotiations with the Mercosur (see EUROPE 11533).
The letter is signed by many members of the agriculture committee of the EP: Michel Dantin (EPP, France), Éric Andrieu (S&D, France), Jean-Paul Denanot (S&D, France), Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium), Angélique Delahaye (EPP, France), Élisabeth Köstinger (EPP, Austria), M. Siekierski, Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy), Albert Dess (EPP, Germany), Jim Nicholson (ECR, UK), Mairead McGuinness (EPP, Ireland) and Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Italy).
It is also signed by two members of the committee on trade: Franck Proust (EPP, France) and Ms Tokia Saïfi (EPP, France). The letters also been copied to the Commissioners concerned: Phil Hogan (Agriculture), Cecilia Malmstrom (Trade) and Vytenis Andriukaitis (Health).
The authors of the letter urged Juncker to “proceed with caution” in relaunching negotiations for a free-trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur and to address the “concerns” of European farmers over the so-called 'sensitive' products.
The arguments they develop are the same as those put forward by 20 Agriculture Ministers of the EU at the Council of 11 April and by 10 member states of the EU at the General Affairs Council of 18 April (see EUROPE 11530). According to the MEPs, including sensitive EU products in the talks with Mercosur would have a “negative impact” on internal EU prices and would send out a poor signal to EU farmers at a time when prices are already very low. They reiterate the crisis currently affecting farmers and the fact that there seems to be no prospect of improvement in prices in the pork and beef meat and dairy products sectors.
The crisis is also affecting the EU bio-ethanol market and the EU has fully implemented the 'Everything but Arms' initiative, which has led to a considerable impact on imports of rice and sugar. The MEPs draw Juncker's attention to the “sensitive nature of beef, eggs, honey and fruits, including apples, sour cherries and soft fruits”.
The letter also reiterates that the Argentinian Foreign Minister, Susana Malcorra, declared on 18 April that the initial offer was “only a starting point and not the endgame in the negotiations”.
Finally, the signatory MEPs call for the publication of an overall assessment on the sensitive agricultural products of the EU and the cumulative impacts of the proposed free-trade agreements. “This is necessary to ensure that the agricultural sector in the EU is not harmed by trade deals which fail to take account of the importance of the sector to the EU and its sensitivity to changes in tariff regimes and non-tariff issues”, the letter reads. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)