The EU and the Mercosur alliance on Wednesday (11 May) exchanged offers on access to their respective markets of goods, services and establishment and government procurement.
However this first exchange excluded 'sensitive' items such as beef and ethanol, according to EU sources. The details of the documents exchanged were not made public.
This is the first exchange of offers since 2004, and a necessary step to move the negotiating process forward. Both sides will now examine in more detail the offers.
Both sides remain fully committed to this negotiation, in view of the important economic and political gains expected for both sides from a comprehensive, ambitious and balanced EU-Mercosur Association Agreement, said a joint release.
Farming co-operative Copa & Cogeca have opposed the EU’s offer on agriculture in free trade talks with Latin American Trade bloc Mercosur, warning it will open up the EU’s markets to imports without getting much in return.
Speaking after the offers were exchanged, Copa & Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen said: "Despite warnings from 20 EU Ministers against making an offer on agriculture which includes sensitive agriculture products in the free trade talks, the Commission has gone ahead with the move.
"Some changes were made to the EU’s initial offer but it’s not enough for us".
"In particular, I am extremely disappointed that the offer still includes sensitive agriculture products which could destroy our agriculture sector before any clarification was done in terms of removing red tape and other unnecessary non-tariff barriers to trade which stop our exports from entering these countries.
"Also the Commission failed to carry out an impact assessment which it promised to do", Pesonen said.
He went on to explain that the EU agriculture sector is already in a serious state of crisis and studies show that the EU agri-sector risks losing another 7 billion euros from such a deal.
"Moreover, Mercosur is already a major exporter of agri-commodities to the EU, with 86% of our beef imports and 70% of our poultry meat imports coming from these countries.
"They therefore do not need extra quotas tariff free to increase their trade to the EU, also as little of our beef is let into their countries.
"Furthermore, these imports do not meet the EU’s high environmental and quality standards and there are still concerns about safety aspects of meat production in these countries such as traceability and the use of antibiotic growth promoters.
"We need to ensure that our production standards are respected and there has been no talk on this yet," added Pesonen.
Beef is 'off the menu'
A trade deal with the Mercosur bloc would have seen 78,000 tonnes of non-tariff beef imported into the EU, from countries such as Argentina and Brazil.
At a meeting with NFU Cymru, Commissioner Hogan said that South American beef would be ‘off the menu’ and would be withdrawn from negotiations with the Mercosur trading bloc.
In recent months, farming unions across the UK have been lobbying the Commission directly on this issue with the NFU team in Brussels, highlighting the potential damaging impact that this deal could have on specialist beef production in Wales.
NFU Cymru President, Stephen James said: "The announcement from Commissioner Hogan is reassuring for the Welsh beef sector.
"NFU Cymru has had major concerns with regard to the impact that nearly 80,000 tonnes of additional non-tariff beef would have on beef prices across the EU.
"In Wales we pride ourselves on the production of high quality beef produced to world leading standards and we were concerned that this was going to be undermined by a flood of imports that may not have been produced to the same standards."
