According to a draft of the European Commission’s report on ‘mirror clauses’, to be adopted in June, there is “policy space” to apply reciprocity of EU environmental and health standards to imported agricultural products, in compliance with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
In this version of the report, obtained by EUROPE, the European Commission issues a number of warnings, such as on the EU’s ability to control the measures it imposes or the risks of retaliation from third countries.
There is thus indeed scope for applying health and environmental (including animal welfare) requirements “relating to the processes and production methods of imported products in a manner consistent with WTO rules”.
However, the European Commission points out that before such measures can be considered, efforts must be made at the multilateral level, and provisions can be negotiated in bilateral free trade agreements. In addition to questions of compatibility with WTO rules, the European Commission’s services also indicate that the technical and economic feasibility of control mechanisms in third countries must be taken into account: “Since it is the production or processing methods in the third country that are regulated, the feasibility and proportionality of adequate means to control and enforce their application must be assessed against the costs and benefits of doing so”.
Retaliation? “Some measures taken by the EU autonomously to regulate the global environmental or ethical aspects of imported products, even if fully compliant with WTO rules, may be challenged under the dispute settlement system”, the European Commission said. And pending a WTO ruling, the EU could face the risk of retaliation.
The EU will continue its efforts at the multilateral level to build support and ideally reach a global consensus on the need to act and adopt internationally agreed standards. Objective: to intensify and improve coordination to raise standards in health, environment and other aspects of sustainable development.
Other possibilities to be exploited are trade agreements and bilateral cooperation with chapters on trade and sustainable development, provisions on cooperation on animal welfare and antimicrobial resistance, and the inclusion of a chapter on sustainable food systems in any future agreement. The EU has already agreed such a chapter with Chile, and discussions are underway with Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.
Initiatives are already underway. Stand-alone measures, such as mirror clauses, can be considered “where necessary to address global environmental concerns or animal health issues”, according to the draft.
The proposed regulation on imported deforestation falls into this category.
The European Commission indicates that it will consider, in the proposal for the revision of the animal welfare legislation, “the introduction of rules requiring that imported products were obtained under conditions that are equivalent to the EU’s animal welfare rules, or some of them, and/or a labelling requirement”.
Environmental aspects will be “taken into account when assessing applications for import tolerances for pesticides that are no longer allowed in the EU, while respecting WTO standards and obligations”, the draft report states.
The proposed framework law on sustainable food systems (end 2023) will provide for common definitions and principles for sustainability of food produced or placed on the market in the EU (including a possible sustainability labelling scheme).
The French Presidency of the Council of the EU could organise a debate on this important issue of reciprocity at the Agriculture Council on 13 June in Luxembourg.
Link to the draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/1ir (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)