First blow on the table in Brussels at the entry of agri-food products from third countries, and specifically on one of the Mercosur countries, Brazil, on which there are well-founded suspicions regarding its health traceability, specifically regarding antibiotics for animal fattening. The veto occurs only four months after the provisional entry into force - on May 1 - of the historic agreement with the Mercosur countries, 26 years after the start of negotiations and after Spanish agricultural organizations had long warned about the lack of guarantees of compliance with the rules for the use of antibiotics (specifically, antimicrobials) in Brazilian livestock and poultry.
In this way, the entry into force for all purposes of the veto approved by the European Commission will occur this Thursday and beef, poultry, horse meat, aquaculture products, honey and tripe will be affected. The damage to the Brazilian economy will be at least 178 million euros, which was the result of its exports in these sectors last year. In fact, Brazil is the sixth agri-food supplier in business volume for Spain, which last year bought 6.29 million tons of products from this country and spent 2,920 million euros on their acquisition.
Meanwhile, the Spanish countryside and the meat industry celebrate Brussels' decision, although they clarify that the measure comes "late" and shortly after the alliance between both blocks to host one of the largest free trade zones in the world, an agreement endorsed by the Government of Spain, but which had the Spanish countryside against it precisely because of the lack of border control in health matters, with repeated complaints about non-compliance with the 'mirror clauses'.
"Imported products must meet the same requirements of food safety, traceability and animal welfare that European livestock farmers endure," Asaja points out with satisfaction, which considers the measure as "a step towards real reciprocity" for a "historic" claim of the sector. In any case, this organization insists that at stake "the credibility of the European food safety system depends on applying the same rules to everyone," it says in a press release.
Asaja recalls that the Brazilian certification protocol "is still in the initial phase and no farm has been certified" so he calls for strengthening border controls and expanding the veto beyond antimicrobials, to "all irregularities detected in community audits." In this sense, it indicates that Brazil is part of Mercosur, which is why it argues that the Government's argument that this suspension has nothing to do with the EU-Mercosur agreement is "unsustainable." This organization recalls that on July 31, it denounced that the Secretary of State for Commerce, Amparo López Senovilla, offered in Sao Paulo, while on a tour of Mercosur, Spain's support for Brazil to provide the guarantees required by the EU. "It is contradictory to pave the way for Brazil when the Government's first obligation is to defend its farmers and ranchers."
In this way, he indicates that "the agreement with Mercosur still must be ratified by the European Parliament" so he trusts that milestones like this "will make Spanish MEPs reflect. September 3 is not a final point, but a step towards real and verifiable reciprocity," he considers.
For his part, Joaquín Gargallo, head of beef at COAG, has regretted that the measure comes "very late" and recalls that this agricultural organization had demanded the application of the safeguard clauses for the entire Mercosur contingent: "These EU measures must be immediate" because they affect the livestock of each territory.
