Luis Planas calls for measures to support sectors hardest hit by US customs duties

The EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council debated, upon a request from Spain and France, the impact of US customs duties imposed on the agri-food sector, within the framework of the litigation over the Airbus consortium case.

Eight other countries have backed the demands for support presented by France and Spain, in response to the imposition of customs duties.

These duties affect such products as bottled olive oil and green table olives, wine and spirits, canned fruit and vegetables, citrus fruits, pork and cheese.

The acting minister added that it is "urgent" to garner additional support for those sectors hardest hit (agriculture and industry). The situation may worsen given the announcement by the USA to revise the list of products and the amount of the duties imposed within the framework of the dispute over the Airbus case.

According to the acting minister, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) "provides instruments" already available to us that can be implemented to stabilise the prices and markets of a product. In this regard, he underlined the need to apply the private storage of olive oil efficiently.

Furthermore, within the debate on the reform of the CAP, the acting minister pointed out that the future post-2021 CAP must include tools to "provide responses to problems such as this and, in general, to increasing market volatility". In this regard, he called for reference prices to be reviewed with a view to the introduction of private olive oil storage.

Reform of the CAP

The EU Council also examined the progress made during the Finnish Half-Yearly Presidency of the EU, in terms of negotiations on the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). According to the acting minister, the discussion document contains most of the improvements proposed by Spain, related to the original proposals made by the European Commission.

This progress includes the possibility of granting eco-system subsidies per head of cattle, setting redistribution payments with different amounts per region.

However, some aspects still require further debate, said the acting minister.

He also stressed that more progress must be made for "eco-systems" to truly become a way to incentivise the transition towards methods of production that are truly beneficial to the climate and the environment.

For Spain, the maintenance of the CAP budget is a red line, and it will advocate keeping it at the same level as those currently programmed.

The acting minister also declared that the CAP should send out a clear sign of environmental ambition in line with the expectations that society is now clamouring for urgently and in line with the goals set by the Commission itself.

In this regard, he referred to the Climate Change Conference, the COP25, held in Madrid, and the New Green Deal presented by the EC.

Non official translation