EU Agrees on Safeguards for Sensitive Agricultural Imports from Mercosur
EU Parliament and Council agree on measures to protect local agriculture from increased imports under the EU-Mercosur trade agreement.
The European Parliament and Council have reached an informal agreement on measures to protect EU agriculture once the EU-Mercosur trade and partnershi...
The European Parliament and Council have reached an informal agreement on measures to protect EU agriculture once the EU-Mercosur trade and partnership agreements are in place. The draft regulation outlines how the European Commission can temporarily suspend tariff preferences on the import of certain sensitive agricultural products from Mercosur countries if these imports are seen to be harming EU producers. The most important measures agreed include the possibility to suspend tariff preferences for sensitive agricultural products such as poultry, beef, eggs, citrus, and sugar; stricter thresholds to trigger safeguards; and a requirement for the Commission to monitor the market closely and report at least every six months. An increase in import volume of more than 8% compared to the three-year average would be evidence of serious injury and would trigger an investigation into suspending preferential tariffs. A decrease in prices of more than 8% compared to the three-year average would also be treated as serious injury and give reason to start an investigation. The Commission may extend the scope of its monitoring to non-sensitive products, upon request by the EU industry. Investigations should be concluded within at least 6 months in the case of non-sensitive products and as quickly as possible but certainly after 3 months in the case of sensitive products. For sensitive products, there will be the possibility to adopt provisional measures, without delay and within 21 days after a notification.
