The potential impact of the EU/Mercosur trade agreement would be an increase in the EU’s negative trade balance of €1.5 billion, including an increase in imports of €2 billion in value terms, declared the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, at the close of the ‘Agriculture’ Council meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday 27 June (see EUROPE 13201/30).
At the Council, which took stock of trade agreements, several countries mentioned the EU/Mercosur agreement in particular, in the light of a note obtained by EUROPE (https://aeur.eu/f/7rw ).
With regard to the EU/Mercosur agreement, the Commissioner for Agriculture reportedly called for vigilance on sensitive products (cattle, sheep, sugar), while reiterating that this was a “strategic” agreement.
Several Member States, including Austria, France, the Netherlands and Slovenia, have also called for vigilance regarding the effects of this agreement.
Mr Wojciechowski drew a comparison with imports of Ukrainian agricultural products into the EU which, in just one year, have risen from €7 billion to €13 billion in value, including +€5 billion for countries close to Ukraine (Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland and Slovakia).
He also “welcomed the compromise reached with these 5 countries, which have lifted their unilateral measures in the form of import restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural products”. The Commission will soon formally adopt the decision on the €100 million. €330 million has been earmarked for the other 22 EU countries (see EUROPE 13209/2).
CAP. Over lunch, the agriculture ministers discussed the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Mr Wojciechowski stressed the need to provide the CAP with “more money for crisis management measures”. Marc Fesneau, the French Minister, noted that the integration of farmers into the eco-regimes in France had gone well, and that in the future we will need a CAP that can cushion price and climatic shocks. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)