European safeguards raise alarms among Argentine exporters

The possibility of European countries applying safeguards to protect their agricultural sector, within the framework of the agreement between Mercosur and the EU, has raised alarms among local producers. The European Commission decided to push for these safeguards due to pressure from European agriculture and governments, such as the Italian one, which requested their inclusion as a condition for signing the agreement. These protectionist mechanisms, a bad word for liberal leaders like Javier Milei, should be discussed in the European Council and Parliament prior to the ratification of the agreement with Mercosur. There would be 24 agricultural and agro-industrial products that could benefit from these mechanisms, some of which are key for Argentina. They include: fresh meat; chilled and frozen high-quality beef; frozen meat for processing; fresh, chilled, and frozen pork; boneless poultry meat and preparations; poultry meat with bones; powdered milk; cheeses; infant formulas; corn and sorghum; rice; sugar for refining; other sugars; eggs; egg albumins; honey; rum and other spirits obtained from the fermentation of sugarcane; sweet corn; corn and cassava starch; starch derivatives; ethanol; garlic; biodiesel; and citrus fruits such as lemon, orange, and mandarin. The data is contained in a report released this Tuesday by entities that bring together local markets. Safeguards can be triggered once it is established and proven that an increase in imports of these products has damaged or is affecting local productive sectors. The parameters, although most of them must be defined, would be a considerable increase in the volume of imports: in a short period of time exceeding 5% compared to the average of the last three years, or an increase in Mercosur's exports causing internal prices to fall by 5%. Argentine exporters are concerned about the discretion that European countries can apply to keep their producers' claims at bay. "It's a quite worrying situation, because this is established unilaterally by the EU," said the president of the Chamber of the Oilseed Industry and the Center of Grain Exporters (Ciara-CEC), Gustavo Idígoras. "The reason to be of an agreement is the creation of trade, but you can kill it with the safeguards, because if they are applied in an unrestricted and imprudent manner, they become a huge risk in the flow of trade," he added. For Idígoras, Mercosur's exports to the European block once the agreement is in force "do not mean any risk for Europe, but it's pure politics."