On Thursday 29 September, Marc Tarabella MEP (S&D, Belgium) welcomed the holding of a public hearing at the European Parliament on 29 November on the agricultural aspect of negotiations for a free-trade deal between the EU and the United States (TTIP). The hearing will be attended by Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan.
Since the US agriculture department (USDA) evaluated, at the end of 2015, little in the way of benefit, if not a loss, for EU agriculture from TTIP, Tarabella has been constantly calling on the European Commission to account for itself and has been demanding a halt in the talks (see EUROPE 11461).
Assessing the TTIP gains for the United States and the EU in three scenarios, Tarabella says the USDA’s findings are categorical. In the first scenario, of only scrapping customs duty, the estimated gain to the US is $5.5 billion, compared with only $800 million for the EU, giving the US seven times more benefit than the EU.
Under the second scenario, scrapping non-tariff measures, the estimated gains for the US are $10 billon compared with barely $2 billion for the EU.
The third scenario, scrapping non-tariff measures on request from consumers would not generate any gains at all for the EU. Moreover, the report expects prices to rise in the US and fall in the EU under the impact of too much competition in a low-growth area.
Tarabella said he did not want to see farming in the EU led off to the slaughterhouse, leaving subsistence farming in its wake. He said farming cannot be TTIP’s adjustment variable as this would be a mockery for EU farmers and consumers.
Commission criticised for underestimating TTIP’s impact. A French parliament report published on 28 September by Joaquim Pueyo (socialist) and Hervé Gaymard (centre-right) accuses the Commission of always stressing the benefits to the EU of free-trade treaties, such as TTIP, when making use of impact assessments and rarely mentioning drawbacks.
The impact assessments drawn up before or after deals are signed are done properly by the European Commission, but are limited in terms of their economic models, that Puyeo and Gaymard say at best only allow trends to emerge.
They add that the deals’ drawbacks are rarely mentioned, particularly by the Commission, probably because they are essentially a justification for launching the trade negotiations they legitimise. Two scenarios for TTIP have been studied, one conservative and one ambitious, but it is the ambitious scenario that is always highlighted by the Commission, which would lead to a rise in the size of the EU’s economy by €119 billion, or 0.48% of GDP, the French parliamentarians explain. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)