EU Parliament approves measures to tighten controls on agricultural imports from Mercosur

Lawmakers in the European Union approved stricter controls on imports of agricultural products arising from a potential trade agreement with Mercosur on Tuesday (16).

The vote, which passed with 431 votes in favor and 161 against, comes one day after France joined Italy in pressing to delay the vote on the agreement. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen plans to travel to Brazil on Saturday (20) to sign the trade deal.

The European Union and the bloc formed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay reached an agreement last December to create the largest trade deal in the EU’s history, nearly 25 years after negotiations began.

The European Commission presented the agreement for approval in September. It sought to ease opposition by adding a mechanism to suspend Mercosur’s preferential access for certain agricultural products, such as beef, poultry, and sugar.

Under the agreement, the trigger for launching an investigation would be an increase of more than 10% year over year in import volumes or a decline of that amount in one or more EU member states.

However, the European Parliament voted on Tuesday for a lower trigger level of 5%, compared with a three-year average of imports, as well as for shorter investigations to introduce safeguards earlier. Lawmakers also want safeguards to be applied if Mercosur agricultural imports do not comply with EU production standards, a demand made by France.

The changes mean that members of Parliament will have to negotiate a compromise with the group of EU governments that supported the 10% threshold. Those negotiations are expected to begin as early as Wednesday (17).

Source: SBT News