Spain does not have the necessary majority to, at the Council of Agriculture Ministers next Monday, be able to approve one of the main demands of the professionals in the field who are demonstrating: that products imported by the EU be marketed under the same conditions as those produced in community territory. They are called mirror clauses. The opposition comes from the north.
Among the 18 proposals that the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, presented last week to the main agricultural organizations can be read: “The Government is committed to defending in all international forums, and in particular in the EU and the World Organization of the Trade (WTO), the principle of reciprocity in the use of phytosanitary products in the production of foods imported from third countries. That is, “if a phytosanitary product is prohibited in the EU, it should not be used in the production of food that is going to be imported,” said the minister.
Planas explained this Thursday that “a problem of unfair competition” is occurring in Europe. “The farmers are right,” he proclaimed. This was also made known in the meeting with Asaja, COAG and UPA. The problem, he assumed, is that “we don’t have the majority.” Planas has the support of France. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau have referred to this in recent days. But the bone is further north. Countries such as Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and the Baltics do not view this measure favorably. A senior government official explains it: “They are countries whose food system is based on cheap food, based on cheap imports.”
If the EU ended up imposing mirror clauses on these imports, its food system would suffer stress and prices would skyrocket. In Agriculture, they see it as difficult, therefore, for this measure to go ahead. “There are governments that have a vision more as a net importer and that are not favorable,” Planas summarized the same Thursday.
Another added difficulty in ending up approving the imposition of mirror clauses on products imported from other countries is that the EU would have to open a negotiation within the framework of the WTO to close trade agreements with the countries, said Planas. A whole diplomatic tangle, in short, that makes the demand of Spanish farmers and ranchers difficult.
The Government has been trying to pull strings in Brussels for more than a week, Agriculture sources explain. The first move was made by Minister Planas with two letters to the Agriculture Commissioner, Janusz Wojciechowski, and to the Belgian Presidency of the Council. These letters were followed by one from Pedro Sánchez sent to the president of the Commission insisting on the need to act in the face of farmers’ protests in Spanish territory. In addition, an Agriculture team traveled to Brussels to negotiate the flexibility of the CAP.
On Monday, coinciding with the council of ministers in Brussels, the organizations Asaja, COAG and UPA have called for a demonstration that will try to collapse Madrid again. Free buses are being organized to attend a protest that will travel the distance between the Ministry of Agriculture and the headquarters of the European Commission office on Paseo de la Castellana. The chosen motto is “the countryside demands support, respect and recognition.”
