On the initiative of France, 13 EU agriculture ministers called at the Council meeting in Brussels on Monday 23 January for the European Commission to go beyond the study on the cumulative impact of 12 free-trade agreements on the agri-good sector (see EUROPE 11668).
Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia suggest in a joint note that the study on the cumulative effect of free-trade agreements is a first step in addressing the need for a management tool to help determine the red lines in potential concessions made by the EU in future negotiations.
The 13 countries call on the Commission to complement the study and to open an in-depth dialogue with the member states to define – and, in the case of Mercosur, to update – the product coverage and the level of tariff rate quotas proposed by the EU in trade negotiations. The Commission is asked to “better take into account the efforts made by the EU with regard to sensitive sectors as part of the Common Agricultural Policy while defining their treatment in trade negotiations”.
High-value products. Several countries, including Spain, Greece and Italy, regretted that the Commission’s cumulative impact study does not cover high-value products, such as wine, olive oil and fruit and vegetables. Health and plant health measures are not taken into account either in the study, complained a number of countries, which included Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Italy stressed the importance of reciprocity and on the need, if necessary, to make provision for compensation. It called for the compulsory labelling of origin (EU, non-EU).
France argued that agriculture must not be sacrificed in trade agreements and that sensitive sectors, such as livestock, should be protected.
The United Kingdom underlined the expected beneficial effect of free-trade deals, a position backed by other so-called liberal countries (Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden).
As a result of methodological limitations, the impact study fails to capture all the impacts of past trade concessions and to include the technical barriers to trade and the non-tariff and sanitary and phytosanitary obstacles to third countries markets.
The study concludes that these trade agreements would result in a deterioration of the European agri-food trade balance deficit of between €500 million and €1.4 billion, the signatory countries point out. As the 13 countries also point out, the study highlights the risks for many sensitive products of a high level of liberalisation with several main partners, notably Mercosur.
New Zealand. Within the “other business” section, Poland called for milk to be excluded from the trade negotiations (free-trade agreement) that is planned between the EU and New Zealand (see EUROPE 11700).
Several countries (Austria, Hungary, France, Latvia, Bulgaria, Germany) called for caution to be the watchword in the negotiations, though they stopped short of asking for milk to be excluded. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)