The European Union will suspend, starting Thursday 3 September, its imports of Brazilian poultry and beef, as well as eggs, honey and casings, the European Commission announced on Monday 31 August, demanding guarantees from Brasilia regarding compliance with its health rules on antibiotics.
The list of countries that comply with EU antimicrobial standards will enter into force on Thursday 3 September. Brazil is not currently on that list. According to the Commission, the list includes 21 new countries and may be updated.
The measure stems from regulations applicable to EU producers since 2022 under the EU’s One Health agenda to combat antibiotic resistance.
From 3 September, that requirement will be extended to all exports of animals and animal products intended for human consumption imported into the EU. Only third countries that have provided guarantees of compliance will be able to continue exporting to the European market.
The Commission says it organised three information sessions with its trade partners, in January 2023, June 2023 and March 2024, to support them through this transition.
Due to Brazil’s failure to provide sufficient guarantees, the country will therefore lose, from Thursday, its authorisation to export to the Union animals and animal products intended for human consumption. The measure concerns, in particular, beef and poultry meat, eggs, honey and casings.
“Brazil is an important partner for the EU and we are working closely, constructively and positively with the Brazilian authorities to ensure their compliance with these requirements. Once compliance is demonstrated, exports to the EU will be able to resume”, a Commission spokesperson said on Monday evening.
“We can trust Brazil and its commitment to resolve this problem so that imports can resume as quickly as possible”, added the Commission’s chief spokesperson, Paula Pinho, on Tuesday 1 September.
An audit is concluding on Friday. Brazil has submitted information concerning several sectors (beef, poultry, eggs, honey and aquaculture products). However, according to the Commission, the timeframes for achieving compliance vary from one sector to another, in particular due to the length of production cycles specific to each animal species.
A team from the Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) is currently carrying out an audit in Brazil, the conclusions of which are expected on 4 September.
The audit focuses on the products for which Brazil had provided written guarantees of compliance at the time of the audit, namely poultry and honey. An audit report will then be produced in the following weeks, in line with the usual procedure.
If the findings are positive, the Commission could propose amending the list of authorised third countries in order to reinstate Brazil for those two sectors. The proposal would then be put to a vote by the Member States in a standing committee. That committee, composed of representatives from all 27 Member States, is scheduled to meet three times in the coming months: on 17 and 18 September, 20 and 21 October, and then 16 and 17 November.
However, the Commission is refraining from making any predictions about the audit’s outcome and is not, at this stage, providing any timetable, including for beef, for which compliance is expected to take longer.
Significant trade issue. In May, the European Union removed Brazil from the list of countries deemed compliant with its rules on the intensive use of antibiotics in livestock farming (see EUROPE 13867/9), under pressure from the European agricultural sector after the signing, in January 2026, of the free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay).
The trade stakes are high: in 2025, Brazil was the second largest exporter of beef to the EU, with more than 92,000 tonnes of beef products, representing more than €713 million (see EUROPE 13860/9).
According to MEP Céline Imart (EPP, French), this suspension shows that we cannot “open our markets wide to products that don’t comply with the requirements imposed on our own farmers”.
EU rules do in fact prohibit the use of antimicrobials to promote growth or increase yield, as well as the use in animals of antimicrobials reserved for human treatment.
The aim is to limit the unnecessary use of antibiotics, given that antimicrobial resistance poses a growing threat to global health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), antimicrobial-resistant bacteria are directly responsible for more than one million deaths a year worldwide and contribute to nearly five million additional deaths. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)