Brussels, 07/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - At the meeting of the Special Agricultural Committee (SAC), in Brussels Monday afternoon, certain representatives of Member States demonstrated their reluctance regarding the Commission's proposal aimed at enabling Argentina to export an additional quantity of 10,000 tonnes of high-quality beef to the EU ("Hilton Beef"). France, Austria, Ireland and Belgium, notably, expressed fears that the opening up of this additional quota could be renewed from one year to the next, and recalled the still very difficult situation of the European beef market.
It was especially France that asked the Commission to set out its intentions on a possible extension of such a measure, regarding that it was preferable not to renew it for a year (the proposal simply states the date at which the quota will be opened, 1 July 2002). Belgium also questioned whether it was a good idea to allow Argentina the possibility of delivering frozen or refrigerated meat in addition to fresh meat. The Commission representative replied that most deliveries would be in the form of fresh meat, commercially more advantageous for the Argentineans than frozen or refrigerated meat. Austria, which had already referred to its reservations, called as counterpart to Europe's opening up its market to Argentinean meat, that it be possible to find outlets for stocks of European intervention meat by selling them to third countries.
The Commission reminded SAC experts that its request had been backed by European general affairs ministers, and said that he did not therefore understand why it was coming up against a rather negative assessment by some agriculture ministers. This issue will again be examined at the next SAC, notably to settle the problem of the annual opening up of the quota.