The European Parliament has warned the EU to stop making trade concessions that could jeopardise Europe’s agriculture sector when negotiating international trade deals.
In a resolution passed earlier this week, MEPs voiced serious concern about the impact of a proposed trade agreement with South America’s Mercosur bloc, while the EU’s new agreement of association with Morocco was slammed as “not balanced”.
The non-legislative resolution, which was drafted by Greek MEP Georgios Papastamkos, urged the European Commission not to make concessions to gain access to overseas markets at the expense of Europe’s farmers.
MEPs have called for an impact assessment on European agriculture to be carried out before any negotiations begin, while they said the EU’s high standards on food security and quality should be applied to imports to guarantee fair competition.
The resolution argued that the Commission should always ensure “symmetrical tariff concessions” when negotiating free trade agreements, especially when the other countries involved have strong agricultural sectors.
In this sense, the Parliament expressed “serious concern” about the impact on EU farmers of a trade deal with Mercosur, and called on the European authorities by assessing the impact on the agricultural sector before negotiations are finalised.
MEPs also criticised the EU new agreement of association with Morocco, which they claim will almost completely open up European markets to Moroccan exports.
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