European Parliament proposes tightening trade restrictions with Mercosur

The European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) has adopted a position on mechanisms to protect the EU agricultural market within the framework of the trade agreement with the Mercosur countries. This concerns the possibility of temporarily suspending tariff preferences for imports of agricultural products from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay in the event of harm to European producers, the European Parliament’s press service reports. The committee approved the relevant draft regulation with 27 votes in favor, 8 against and 7 abstentions. The document sets out clear conditions for the application of safeguard measures on imports of agricultural products from Mercosur. In particular, the deputies propose to lower the threshold for initiating an investigation into the introduction of safeguard measures. If imports of sensitive agricultural products, such as poultry or beef, increase by 5% on average over three years, the European Commission should initiate ...