The European Commission has outlined the proposed timeline for reduced tariffs on imports of beef, poultry and pigmeat from Mercosur countries into the EU.
Last Friday (December 6), the EU reached political agreement with four Mercosur countries – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – on the controversial trade deal.
The EU Commission said that as part of the deal the EU “will grant very limited access to its market to imports of agri-food products”.
“For sensitive products like beef, poultry or sugar, in particular, access to the EU market will be permanently limited through gradually implemented quotas.
“Moreover, a bilateral safeguard clause can be applied in case increased imports from Mercosur cause – or even only threaten to cause – serious injury to the relevant EU sectors,” it said.
Mercosur
The EU Commission has this week published the detailed text of the trade part of the EU-Mercosur deal, which includes the schedule for the reduction or elimination of tariffs.
Under the trade agreement, an additional 99,000t of beef will enter the EU from the South American countries with a 7.5% duty rate.
55% of the quota will consist of fresh or chilled meat and the remaining 45% of lower-value frozen meat.
According to the commission the overall volume represents 1.6% of total European beef production and is less than half of the current imports from Mercosur, which are at 196,000t (2023).
Overall, the EU is a net exporter of beef, with €4.6 billion of total exports in 2023, almost double the total EU imports.
The commission noted that Mercosur produces more than 10 million tonnes of beef every year and the trade deal quota represents about 0.7% of Mercosur production.
The timeline shows that fresh beef imports from the Mercosur countries, with an in-quota tariff rate of 7.5%, will stand at just over 9,000t in the first year of the agreement.
This figure will increase on an annual basis until year 5 when it will reach 54,450t, where it will remain for each subsequent year.
The timeline shows that the tariff rate (7.5%) quota for frozen beef exports from the Mercosur bloc to the EU will start at 7,425t.
Again, this figure will gradually increase on a yearly basis until it reaches 44,550t in year 5 and each subsequent year.
Under the agreement, the EU will allow a quota of 180,000t of poultry to be imported duty-free which will be phased-in over five years.
This quota will be evenly split between boneless poultry meat, including poultry preparations, and bone-in poultry meat.
The commission said that this quota represents 1.4% of total EU consumption and is lower than current imports from Mercosur (240,000t in 2022).
It is largely compensated by EU exports, which are at 2.2 million tonnes, the commission added.
The commission said that EU consumption is increasing by the same amount as the duty-free imports (180,000t).
The trade deal will allow limited imports of fresh and chilled, frozen and prepared pigmeat from Mercosur countries subject to an in-quota tariff rate of €83/t.
Following the latest discussions, an additional quota of 1,500t of pigmeat was granted to Paraguay on account of its land-locked developing country status.
The timeline shows that pigmeat imports will begin at 4,167t in the first year of the deal coming into force, rising to 25,000t by year 5 and for each subsequent year.
Irish and other European farmers have voiced strong opposition to the Mercosur deal which they believe will lead to cheap imports of South American commodities that do not meet the EU standards.
The EU Commission said that the EU has “very stringent standards to protect human, animal and plant health”.
“Any product sold in the EU must comply with all these standards, which do not change at all with this agreement: products imported from Mercosur under the agreement will have to respect them, too,” it said.
The commission stated that as of the end of 2025 only deforestation-free products will be allowed to enter the EU market, including products such as soya bean, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa, coffee, and rubber.
It said that this rule will also apply to imports under the EU Mercosur partnership agreement, “ensuring that products imported under this deal have not contributed to deforestation in Mercosur countries”.