Dans une lettre (EN) adressé au président de la Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, Eric Andrieu et 13 eurodéputés demandent à Bruxelles de protéger les produits agricoles sensibles. Retrouvez l’intégralité de cette letter.

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Brussels, 27th April 2016

Dear Mr President,

We would like to stress our concerns about the direction and content of the negotiations of a Free Trade Agreement with Mercosur, in particular the proposals on sensitive agricultural products.

The Commission has launched an ambitious agenda of bilateral trade negotiations. The EU is currently negotiating with the US, Japan and negotiations with New Zealand, Australia, and Indonesia are pending. All of these countries have competitive agriculture sectors and are amongst our main competitors.

 In this context, we call for a comprehensive assessment of the cumulative impacts on EU sensitive agricultural products of current and proposed FTAs. This is necessary to ensure that the agricultural sector in the EU is not harmed by trade deals which fail to take account of the importance of the sector to the EU and its sensitivity to changes in tariff regimes and non-tariff issues.

Moreover addressing such sensitive products in the Mercosur negotiations would have a negative impact on our internal price and send a poor signal to our farmers at a time when commodity prices are already at very low levels. The European agricultural sector is experiencing a severe and lengthy crisis. The current market situation is poor with very few expectations of improvement as long as the Russian ban is in place for the main EU commodities such as pork, beef and dairy products.

The market crisis is also affecting the bio-ethanol sector and the EU has moreover fully implemented Every Thing but Arms (EBA) unilaterally with a strong impact on rice and sugar imports. We also wish to draw your attention to the sensitive nature of beef, honey and fruits, including apples, sour cherries and soft fruits.

Furthermore the Argentinian Foreign affairs Minister, Ms Susanna Lacorra has stated publicly on the 18th April, that the initial offer is only a starting point and not the end game in the negotiations.

Therefore, we encourage you to be conscious of the need for a careful political strategy during the negotiation process in order to have a chance to conclude a balanced trade deal with Mercosur.

Considering the concerns raised in the Committee for Agriculture in the European Parliament on the 26th April, by 20 Members States in the Agricultural Council meeting on the 11th April but also by more than 10 Members States during the last General Affairs Council meeting on the 18th April, we would like to ask you to proceed with caution in re-launching a Mercosur-EU trade negotiation and to address the concerns on sensitive products.

We would like to inform you that a copy of this letter has also been sent to the members of your college, Ms Cecilia Malmström, Mr Phil Hogan and Mr Vytenis Andriukaitis.

Yours faithfully.

Jean-Claude JUNCKER

President of the European Commission

European Commission

Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200

1049 Brussels

Michel DANTIN, Czeslaw SIEKERSKI, Albert DESS, Paolo DE CASTRO, Jim NICHOLSON, Jan HUITEMA, Mairead McGUINNESS, Tokia SAIFI, Elisabeth KOESTINGER, Eric ANDRIEU, Herbert DORFMANN, Angélique DELAHAYE, Marc TARABELLA, Jean-Paul DENANOT, Frank PROUST