Campaigners are resounding their concerns over the future of Europe’s animal welfare and environmental standards following the European Commission’s (EC) successful push to finalize a free trade agreement with the Mercosur countries of South America. In the deal, EU F&B standards must legally remain the same, but with open access to huge markets wher lower requirements may pose a threat to quality assurance in the bloc. 

Stephanie Ghislain, political affairs manager for the lobby organization Eurogroup for Animals, tells Food Ingredients First that while the deal ensures certain aspects of meat production will remain the same, important loopholes exist. 

“The EC is insisting that the EU’s health standards will continue to apply to imports, as they legally do, but equal animal welfare standards will not be upheld in the deal, as EU animal welfare standards, apart from slaughter, do not apply to imports,” she explains.

“The EU-Mercosur deal goes against citizens’ wishes for products on the EU market to align to the EU’s animal welfare standards, while it jeopardizes EU producers’ efforts to transition to more sustainable and animal-welfare friendly methods of production.” 

The deal gives a tariff-free quota of 99,000 tons of beef, equating to roughly 18% of current EU beef production. The same applies to 180,000 tons of poultry meat, primarily chicken breast, equivalent to 1.2 billion fillets. The EU already imports over 400,000 tons of poultry meat from Mercosur countries annually. 

Indirect impacts 

Ghislain emphasizes that while the deal will not directly impact the EU’s animal welfare standards, another trade agreement increasing market access for animal products with no condition on animal welfare standards will reinforce a “chilling effect” on EU legislation by fostering more resistance to change, and a feeling of unfairness among EU producers. 

“This is especially the case with the EU-Mercosur agreement, as every scenario put forward by the EC indicates that it will lead to more imports of Mercosur beef and chicken into the EU,” she says. 

“In addition, the new deal has a concerning provision about ‘rebalancing measures’ that could even further impact progress on sustainability in the EU, as it would allow Mercosur countries to adopt retaliatory measures if it is ruled that a legislation adopted by the EU could have a negative impact on Mercosur’s exports.” 

Ghislain says while EU standards will remain the same, further progress will now be more difficult. “Such a consequence will make the EU even more cautious about publishing legislation that could apply to all products placed on the EU market, including imports.” 

There are different types of EU standards (from production to marketing), and not all of them apply to imported products. 

Supply chain controls 

The EC’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety recently reported a lack of implementation of health standards in Mercosur countries bovine and poultry sectors. 

The prospect of advanced farming techniques could be an answer to these issues, Ghislain says, but will never reduce the need for strong legislation. 

“With the right conditions set, requirements (on health but also welfare standards) could be measured by smart technologies, particularly wher the data is incorruptible (for example through blockchain), giving far more assurance than current ‘announced audits’ in third countries.” 

“This is something that could be explored as a cooperation with third-country producers to invest in this technology, easing market access to the EU. However, as this could be done even without a trade agreement, we still need the rules to condition market access to animal welfare standards,” she says. 

While smart technologies offer potential for quality assurance, no such conditions are enforced in the trade deal, so nothing will necessarily be tracked. Fixing tariffs according to welfare standards would be a good first step, Ghislain says. 

“At the moment, in the case of Mercosur, there are no animal welfare conditions required either for importing products into the EU or for importing them at preferential tariff rates, apart from shell eggs — for which there is virtually no trade.” 

“By lowering the tariffs only to products produced to the EU’s equivalent welfare standards, producers are likely to switch to sustainable methods of production to continue exporting to the EU.”