Speaking in Brussels after a meeting with 66 Presidents of farmers and cooperative organisations across the EU, Copa President Joachim Rukwied warned ”We are disappointed with the EU Commission proposal on the future CAP. It is unacceptable that more and more is being asked of farmers in terms of respecting tough food safety, welfare and environmental requirements for less and less money. Another major concern is the fact that the technology tool box that farmers rely on to maintain their competitiveness is being eroded every day. We are very proud of our production standards. More coherence between policies is vital to ensure that they are maintained”.
“We cannot therefore accept that our standards in the trade talks with the Latin American trade bloc Mercosur are weakened or that our farmers are penalised for respecting them by being subject to unfair competition. Trade concessions must be minimized for our more sensitive sectors, namely beef, sugar, poultry, ethanol, rice and orange juice imports as well as any imbalances in the negotiations on the agri-food chapter. We urge Member States and MEPs to support our views in order to revive growth and jobs in rural Europe”, added Rukwied.
Cogeca President Thomas Magnusson went on to regret the USA decision to impose punitive import duties on Spanish table olives, saying that it clearly amounts to protectionism. “I strongly disagree with the determinations published on June 12th on the antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD). We count on the European Commission to continue its work against these unjustified measures”, stressed Magnusson.
President Magnusson concluded “The farming community supports the development of an agricultural sector which is based on family holdings and which enables rural areas to flourish. It is in our common interest to develop good, balanced trading relations between the farming community in the EU and other parts of the world. The potential misuse of free trade agreements by our trading partners could seriously undermine the credibility of these agreements. Every Free Trade Agreement (FTA) should uphold our standards and ensure our sensitive sectors are protected from unfair competition without creating any loopholes”.
