The relationship between, on the one hand, agriculture and food production and, on the other, trade, is full of contradictions. The sector is perceived as being prone to discord and sometimes reluctant to trade agreements that would appear to benefit other industries. Yet, the agri-food industry is one of the main contributors to the European Union’s balance of trade.
The impact of the Covid-19 crisis is still unfolding but one lesson can already be learned – we need food security. In some strategically important sectors the lack of domestic availabilities became quite acute, but fortunately agriculture in the EU assured its fundamental role of feeding its citizens. It did not pass unnoticed that […]
THE HEAVILY IMPACTED AGRICULTURE SECTOR SHOULD GET MUCH NEEDED HELP The US retaliation list has been published, and as unfortunately I had anticipated it is loaded against EU agriculture exports to the US. Although the dispute is on aircraft subsidies, agriculture leads the list of the products targeted, with roughly the double of the trade […]
We are now barely 3 weeks before the (latest) deadline for Brexit, which should concentrate minds, in particular of those with political responsibilities, on how best to unlock a reasonable solution. The new element is the latest UK proposal, which departs from the previous signed but never approved withdrawal agreement. The new proposal accepts an […]
Deforestation and EU imports of agri-food products How can the EU avoid actually importing deforestation? September 2019 The recent forest fires in the Amazon have put a renewed focus on the loss of forests at a global level, and on its connection to the EU’s international trading policy on importing various agri-food products that are […]
June started with the awaited EC publication of the final figures on the “Financial execution of the national support programme 2019-2023” of the Wine CMO. While, in terms of wine market dynamics, latest figures by the Spanish Wine Market Observatory (OeMv) presented a first analysis for the first quarter of 2019, during which wine shipments from […]
June was marked as follows: At the informal summit in Sibiu on 3 and 4 June, the Romanian Presidency of the Council took note of the fact that it would not finally lead towards a partial general approach to the reform regulations, as Member States prefer not to go any further in the negotiations […]