France condemns EU poultry export support withdrawal proposals

The European Commission's proposal to reduce its support for poultry exports to zero has been strongly criticized by the French Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.
The ministry argues that the international market has deteriorated since export refunds were last set, and that currency fluctuations have been negative for European producers. In addition, it argues that European chicken producers cannot currently compete in international markets particularly against lower cost Brazilian chicken.
The ministry further argues that the European industry is undergoing a restructuring process to reduce production costs and that this should be allowed to reach completion under the next stage of the Common Agricultural Policy, allowing refunds to gradually become unnecessary.
Any sudden change would undermine this process, the ministry says, adding that nothing could justify such a "brutal" decision. 

European farm leaders oppose Mercosur pact

A severe warning to the European Union about agreeing to a new trade pact with the Mercosur group of Latin American countries has been issued by Copa-Cogeca, the pan-European federation representing farm cooperatives.
EU and Mercosur representatives are due to meet in mid-March to discuss an agreement to liberalize trade in various products between the two communities. Latin American countries are known to want greater access to the market in Europe for their food products, while the Europeans are keen to export more technology and services to Latin America. But Copa President Padraig Walshe and Cogeca President Paolo Bruni have sent a letter to the EU’s administrative commission, saying a new study had concluded that a pact on trade would cause a huge rise in pork, poultry and maize imports into Europe from the Mercosur countries as well as adding to price volatility and potentially leading to a total collapse of the EU beef sector. At the same time, imports from these countries failed to meet EU standards.
According to the Copa-Cogeca leaders, a further liberalization of trade with Mercosur would make the EU more dependent on imports for supplies of grain and meat and Europe’s food security would be affected increasingly by climatic conditions or by political decisions on agriculture in these countries. Moreover, an agreement would double the level of carbon dioxide emissions and there were also still concerns about safety aspects of meat production in these countries, such as traceability and the use of hormones.