Sonny Perdue, the US Secretary of Agriculture, said in a telephone interview with some European journalists, on Wednesday 7 October, that the effects of the EU’s ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy on transatlantic trade will be “extremely problematic”.
“Every sovereign nation has the right to determine their rules and regulations regarding their food and agricultural production. We do, Europe does. But when you try to impose standards on international trade, based on subjective matters rather than definitive health and safety matters, I think it becomes extremely problematic”, argued the US Secretary of Agriculture, who had already in the past criticised the EU’s ‘Biodiversity’ and ‘Farm to Fork’ strategies under the ‘European Green Deal’.
What elements of these European strategies are problematic? “If European farmers are restrained from using the modern tools, as it has been stated in the Farm to Fork strategy, we believe it’s misguided and that they will only have the choice to be protectionist”, Mr Perdue said with concern.
In an op-ed published on Monday 5 October in the EUObserver, Mr Perdue also stressed that the EU “cannot take away the tools of European farmers and expect them to be able to compete in the global economy”.
The U.S. Secretary said he has already expressed U.S. concerns to the European Commission about the impact of these strategies on international trade.
For Perdue, the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy as proposed is a recipe for “high-cost and low-output agricultural production”.
He admits that the EU and the US have the same sustainability goals, but different means of achieving them. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)